Animals were captured weekly from June 2001 to
July 2004. Initially, the turtles were caught using a
round cast net (5 m in diameter, 6 cm mesh),
deployed from the shore or a boat. Because of the difficulty
of successfully using the cast net, in October
2003 a gill net (70 m × 6 m with 7 cm mesh) was
deployed across the canal to entangle turtles as they
entered or left the canal. The gill net was monitored
every 10 to 15 min to ensure that entangled turtles
were not injured. No turtle was harmed during the
study. The study was performed under the license