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![handle is hein.congrecreports/crptxhdk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AUTHENTICATEO
U.S. GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION
Gp
Calendar No. 691
107TH CONGRESS REPORT
2d Session SENATE 107-303
MARINE TURTLE CONSERVATION ACT OF 2002
OCTOBER 8, 2002.-Ordered to be printed
Mr. JEFFORDS, from the Committee on Environment and Public
Works, submitted the following
REPORT
[to accompany S. 2897]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Environment and Public Works, to which was
referred a bill (S. 2897) to assist in the conservation of marine tur-
tles and the nesting habitats of marine turtles in foreign countries,
having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with an
amendment and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass.
GENERAL STATEMENT AND BACKGROUND
Marine turtles, once abundant throughout the world, are now in
very serious trouble. Some populations are expected to become ex-
tinct within the next few years. Because marine turtles are long-
lived, late-maturing, and highly migratory, they are particularly
vulnerable to human exploitation and habitat loss. Of the species
found in U.S. waters the Leatherback, Green, Hawksbill, Olive Rid-
ley, Loggerhead, and Kemp's Ridley turtles-all are listed as en-
dangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. All
seven of the world's species are included in Appendix I of the Con-
vention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora.
The life-cycles of marine turtles are very complex. They depend
on a diversity of environments, including terrestrial sites on sandy
beaches where nests are made and eggs are deposited and left to
incubate for about 2 months. The newly hatched turtles instinc-
tively run to the sea . Some turtles may spend decades on the high
seas before returning to coastal waters. Dispersing across ocean ba-
sins is routine for many turtles as part of the normal maturation
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