"The commercial landings of threatened and endangered species of marine turtles throughout U.S. waters have never been reported in detail. The early commercial sea turtle landings were sporadically collected and were published in a series of U.S. Government fisheries documents. Unfortunately, they have never been collated and summarized into a single data base or document. These are important base-line fisheries data on U.S. threatened and endangered species of sea turtles and provide considerable insight into the sociology and economics of the turtle fishery. Additionally, these data also provide basic biological information, such as species composition, seasonality, and sizes. These factors are necessary for understanding the ecology of these unique reptiles and enable resource managers to formulate sound management and conservation strategies, as mandated by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and subsequent amendments. In this report, I summarize the commercial U.S. sea turtle landings as reported by the U.S. Fisheries Commission, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and National Marine Fisheries Service for the continental U.S., Puerto Rico, and Hawaii"--Introduction