26th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation Island of Crete, Greece, 3-8 April 2006. Oral Presentation. The Torres Strait and northern Queensland have the largest population of green turtles in the world. This population supplies a large, internationally-based green turtle harvest, which is currently not managed. In Queensland, successful management will need the involvement of the Indigenous Torres Strait Islanders who use green turtles for cultural, social and economic purposes. This project developed community-based strategies for green turtle catch-monitoring upon which communities could base management plans. I engaged two Torres Strait Island communities in a step-wise process: (1) I obtained support from the Torres Strait Regional Authority; (2) This support enabled me to engage Traditional Owners and Community Councils in each community; and (3) I involved turtle hunters through participatory workshops/meetings. Community members helped me design a datasheet to collect data about hunting behavior needed for co-management. Hunters completed the datasheet after each hunting trip. I assessed the project's success by evaluating the proportion of hunters in the community that participated and the quality of the information they provided. We have one year of data from two communities that actively participate in hunting. Ninety-two and 25% of hunters who signed up from Hammond and Thursday Islands, respectively, handed in datasheets consistently. On Thursday Island, a larger community with a broad social structure, it was more difficult to involve community members in catch-monitoring than on Hammond Island, where there is strong community support for the project. In this paper I discuss culturally appropriate aspects of hunting behavior and catch-monitoring statistics from these two communities. Acknowledgments: Acknowledging project support from: CRC Torres Strait, James Cook University, Department of Environment and Heritage, Ocean Parks Conservation Foundation, Hammond Island Council, TRAWQ Community Council, Kaurareg Traditional Aboriginal Elders Corporation, WNM Community Fisher Group and Prince of Wales Community Fisher Group; Acknowledging travel award support from: Sea Turtle Symposium, Disney Animal Kingdom, Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council, US National Marine Fisheries Service, and US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Characteristics of traditional dugong and green turtle fisheries in Torres Strait: opportunities for management. This data forms part of a PhD thesis which aimed to inform the development of management arrangements for the traditional dugong and green turtle fisheries in Torres Strait, and to provide an overall context for management at different special scales and investigating opportunities and challenges associated with co-management, particularly community-based monitoring.

Dugong and turtle catch data, turtle sighting and laparoscope data stored for 220 individuals on Fox pro database

This study examined the cultural acceptability of various management options for dugongs and green turtles at Hammond Island in Torres Strait. Elders and hunters participated in semi-structured interviews to examine their perceptions about various management options for dugongs and green turtles for their community.

In November-December 1991, dugongs, sea turtles and cetaceans were counted from the air at an overall sampling intensity of 5.8% over a total area of 30,560 square km in the Torres Strait region. The population estimates for dugongs an sea turtles were corrected for perception bias, and standardised for availability bias, with survey and species-specific correction factors. The estimates for cetaceans were corrected for perception bias only. Management recommendations are made. Refer to the report compiled for AFMA: Marsh H and Lawler I. (1992) The status of dugongs, sea turtles and dolphins in the Torres Strait region. Report to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, June 1992. James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville, QLD, Australia. 48pp.

Fishery Assessment Report on Turtles in the Torres Strait 2000. Compiled and edited by the Torres Strait Fisheries Assessment Group, for AFMA: Harris ANM, Dwan D and Williams G. (2000)Torres Strait Turtles 2000. Fishery Assessment Report, edited by the Torres Strait Fisheries Assessment Group 2000. Australian Fisheries Management Authority, Canberra. 17pp.

This study trialled community-based catch-monitoring strategies for dugongs and green turtles in two communities (Hammond and Thursday Islands) in the Kaiwalagal region (inner islands) of Torres Strait. Hunters completed datasheets after each hunting trip and these were collected weekly by Indigenous catch-monitors employed on the project. The catch-monitoring program was evaluated in terms of the reliability of the informaition collected and the suitability of the method to the communities. The information collected included biological information about the composition of the catch (e.g. sex ratio, size distribution, reproductive status), selectivity of the green turtle catch, catch-effort, catch-gear and the uses for which dugongs and turtles were hunted. The participating communities can use the information in future management of dugongs and green turtles in their communities.