65 compiled a 6-year time-series to adapt a monitoring and analytic protocol in order to estimate the overall number of nesting activities. Resulting knowledge has allowed us to identify the ‘GLS’ rookery as the first nesting area in terms of number of nests for the Critically Endangered loggerhead turtle South Pacific subpopulation in New Caledonia. This study also establishes the preliminary basis in the perspective of assessing the demographic trends, which requires several years, if not decades, of survey effort due to the marine turtle life history traits (Chaloupka et al. 2008). The only conclusion that can be drawn at this stage is that the population is not facing an imminent crash or an extremely rapid growth. The late identification of this major area to the reproduction of loggerhead turtles in New Caledonia is very likely to be attributed to the lack of efficient tools to assess the nesting intensity in this geographical context. Considering that other important nesting aggregations had been identified in New Caledonia, especially in the north-western lagoon where both the number of nesting islets and the monitoring constraints are very similar to that found in the ‘GLS’ area, it is reasonable to assume that the importance of other nesting rookeries has been overlooked. The assessment of such areas could prove useful to highlight innovative conservation actions to undertake for the more efficient preservation of this emblematic species. 6. Conclusions In the light of this study, the importance of New Caledonia to the South Pacific loggerhead turtle subpopulation nesting population has been refined, with a mean estimation of 20% (1439%) of all reproductive females breeding and nesting within the territory. An important knowledge gap is still to be filled considering other high-potential insular rookeries in the South Pacific region, such as the north-western lagoon of New Caledonia that could prove to be as important as the ‘GLS’ rookery. The implementation of this protocol could substantially improve both regional knowledge and management policies of sea turtle populations, as the monitoring scheme is highly replicable to other similar geographies and/or to other sea turtle species. 7. Supplementary Information
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