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TURTLE VOYAGES FROM PAKISTAN TO AFRICA
A green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) was tagged on 12 December 1995 at Hawkes Bay, Karachi, Pakistan, with a monel metal tag W4801 on the right front flipper and W4802 on the left front flipper. Curved carapace length and width were 98 and 83 cm, respectively. At the time of tagging, egg-laying was unsuccessful due to cement debris in the nest cavity. The turtle was tagged as she returned to the sea.
One year later, in December 1996, the turtle was recovered at Beraisole near Askoma Hill off the South Central coast of Eritrea, northeast Africa (13o39"00' N, 42o08"05' E) by a fisherman named Adem Mahammad Hamadu living in Beraisole village. Data from the recovery were contained in a letter penned by Dr. J. C. Hillman, Marine Resources Advisor, Resources and Environment Division, Ministry of Marine Resources, Massawa, Eritrea. The fisherman reported that he removed the tag after capturing the sleeping turtle from shallow (2 m) water. No mention was made of the tag placed on the left front flipper. The turtle was released alive. A T-shirt was forwarded to the fisherman as a thank you for his efforts.
This is only the second long-distance recovery of a turtle tagged in Pakistan. In 1990, a tagged green turtle was reported from Gajarat, India.
FEHMIDA F. ASRAR, Marine Turtle Project, Wildlife Department, Government of Sindh, Karachi, PAKISTAN.