Reproductive ecology of the Florida green turtle (Chelonia mydas

Clutch frequency can have a profound influence on annual reproductive output and has been consid-ered one of the most important parameters of turtle reproduction (Gibbons, 1982). Clutch frequency is de-fined as the number of egg clutches produced by an individual over the course of a single nesting season. Evaluation of this parameter is particularly important for sea turtles because these data are necessary to estimate female population size from annual nest counts (Meylan, 1982). Demographic models may re-veal valuable insights into conservation strategies for marine turtles and clutch frequency values are used in the construction of these models (Crouse et al., 1987). Although the number of times a female nests with