ABSTRACT
The shoal waters of the Caribbean coast of Central America, from Cape Gracias a Dios to the Gulf of Uraba, has long supported the principal hawksbill turtle population of the Caribbean Sea. Its exploitation for the mottled, translucent shell known commercially as tortoise shell was long dominated by the Miskito Indians of Nicaragua, who traded it to English merchants for guns, cloth and alcohol. The hawksbill fishery has always been intermingled with that for the green turtle, which has traditionally been the more prized of the two species, valued chiefly for its succulent flesh and calipee. Although hawksbill feed on the Miskito Shore and occasionally nest there, they are much less numerous than the greens. Indian, and later Caymanian, turtlers seeking the major congregations of hawksbills have traditionally sought them to the southward. From the beginning English relations with the Indians of the Nicaragua coast were especially cordial.
