Estimating the number of green and loggerhead turtles nesting annually in the Mediterranean

Most species of marine turtle breed every loggerhead turtles. The median interval between nesting seasons for green turtles was 3 years, and for loggerhead two or more years and it is the norm for females to lay more than one clutch of eggs within a nesting season. turtles it was 2 years. Utilizing these parameters and available data from other beaches that are monitored Knowing the interval between breeding seasons and the clutch frequency (number of clutches laid by an regularly, we estimate that there are 2,280–2,787 loggerhead and 339–360 green turtles nesting annually at these individual in a breeding season) of females allows us to assess the status of a nesting population. At Alagadi sites in the Mediterranean. This highlights the Critically Endangered status of this population of green turtles. Beach, Northern Cyprus, over a period of 6 years (1995–2000), we attributed 96% of green Chelonia mydas Furthermore, as conventional beach patrols underestimate clutch frequency, these population estimates are likely to and 80% of loggerhead Caretta caretta turtle clutches to known individual females. This intensive level of be optimistic. monitoring enabled us to estimate the clutch frequency for both species. Using four diCerent methods we esti