Comments: This species is the source of commercial tortoise shell; exploitation increased during the 1970s (Mack et al. 1982); see Luxmoore and Canin (1985) for information on international trade in shell in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many juveniles are killed for trade in stuffed animals. Japan is the largest market for tortoise shell products and stuffed turtles; major exporters of shell in 1988 were the Maldives, Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, the Comoros Islands, Fiji, and the Solomons (Matthews and Moseley 1990). Japan agreed to phase out its trade in endangered species of sea turtles by the end of 1992 (End. Sp. Tech. Bull. 16[7-8]:4). Eggs (and adults) are harvested for human consumption in some areas.