Abstract
Eighteen live and 51 stuffed hawksbill turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata, from the Yaeyama Islands had the standard carapace length ranging from 289mm to 820mm with a mode in the size class of 440-460mm, and were distinctly larger than turtles from Sumatra presented in the literature. Of the fifteen live turtles released from Kuroshima, six were recaptured, five of which in turn were recaptured in the waters adjacent to the Yaeyama Islands within 13 months; the remaining one was recaptured in the coastal waters of Okinawajima Island. On the basis of the size composition and recapture data, problems of life history and conservation in this species are discussed.
