Abstract
ABSTRACT: The first at-sea estimates of density and abundance of the olive ridley turtle Lepi-dochelys olivacea in the eastern tropical Pacific (ETP) were produced from shipboard line-transectdata. Multi-ship surveys were conducted in 1992, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, and 2006 in the areadefined by 5°N, 120°W, and 25°N and the coastline of Mexico and Central America. Sighting data ofolive ridleys were stratified by survey effort and sighting conditions, thereby reducing potentialbiases from heterogeneous observation conditions. Dive data from satellite telemetry studies wereused to correct for the proportion of turtles that were submerged and unavailable for detection dur-ing the surveys. A weighted average of the 5 by-year estimates (1998 to 2006) was 1.39 million (coef-ficient of variation, CV = 19.7%; approximate 95% CI: 1.15 to 1.62 million). Our findings are consis-tent with the dramatic increases of olive ridley nesting populations that have been reported over thepast decade for beaches in the ETP.KEY WORDS: Line transect · DISTANCE · Endangered species
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