Tagging and Recovery of Marine Turtles from the Coast of Karachi : Studies on Tagging and Recoveries of Turtles

Two species of marine turtles, namely Chelonia mydas (green turtle) and Lepidochelys olivacea (olive ridley) are found nesting on the beaches of Hawkesbay and Sandspit at Karachi. Female turtles were tagged by clipping monel metal tags on both of their front flippers. A total of 3093 green and 43 olive ridley turtles were tagged during the period 1982 to 1997. Tagged turtles were recovered from local coasts as well as from abroad when they migrate from the original tagging site; 576 (18 %) green and 12 (27.9 %) olive ridley were recaptured. The number of turtles recovered per year ranged from 7 (1983) to 74 (1987). The longest recorded interval recovery was 9 years 3 months and 11 days of a tagged green turtle tagged at Sandspit and recovered from the same site. The longest recorded distance travelled by green turtle from Pakistan was approximately 1470 km up to Eriteria, Africa.