Marine turtles with foreign tags recaptured in the Philippines from 1993 to 2002

Abstract

The Pawikan Conservation Project (PCP) of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB)-Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is the government agency of the Philippines tasked to conserve and manage the marine turtle populations in the country. In 1989, the PCP started its nationwide tagging program in cooperation and collaboration with the DENR Regional and Field Offices, nongovernment organizations, the academe, and private individuals. This nationwide tagging program is supplemented and complemented by the PCP's information and education campaign regarding marine turtle conservation. Marine turtles with foreign tags recaptured in the Philippines from 1985 to 1993 were those from Yap, Micronesia; Yakushima Island, Japan; and Sabah, Malaysia (De Veyra 1994). An updated list of foreign tag recoveries reported to the PCP from 1993 to 2002 included those tagged from Palau, Guam, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and by the South Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP). These data further justify the need for an international collaboration to manage the shared marine turtle resource and suggests the Sulu Sea both as a feeding and developmental area for marine turtles.