Sea turtles are often incidentally captured in commercial fishing operations in the Atlantic Ocean. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) records and reports incidents of sea turtle capture. The figures below show the seasonal distribution and relative abundance of leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtles caught by the U.S. Atlantic longline fleet from 1992 through 1995. Figure 1 shows a map of fishing areas in the Atlantic Ocean. Table 1 shows leatherback (Lb) and loggerhead (Lh) turtle captures by month in some areas show in Figure 1. Table 2 shows captures by area. Table 3 shows CPUE (catch-per-unit-effort) values for the number of turtles caught per 1000 hooks fished, as well as whether longline fishing vessels were using chemical light sticks to attract fish at the time of capture.

_{Source: “Distribution and Relative Abundance of Sea Turtles Caught Incidentally.”} http://www.sefsc.noaa.gov/turt...