Activists intensify campaign to save turtles

By LEDEDRA MARCHE

Senior FN Reporter

lededra@nasguard.com

A group of environmental activists are intensifying their campaign by targeting Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and the Ministries of Fisheries and Tourism to get the slaughtering of turtles to stop and to ban the catching of endangered sea turtles in The Bahamas.

In that vein, Grand Bahama Humane Society Manager Elizabeth Burrows, Marine Biologist Pedro S. Baranda, Veronica Cuccurullo and Eddy Raphael – all of Underwater Explorers Society (UNEXSO) Dolphin Experience – and Grand Bahama Nature Tours Owner Erika Gates have launched a petition site called Care2.

The goal is to get 2,500 signatures via this website to help the group's plight in urging The Bahamas government to – at least in the initial stages – issue an immediate moratorium on catching turtles in The Bahamas.

"There needs to be studies done on the population of these turtles in The Bahamas," said Burrows. "Our little group is willing to become more organized and assist with any assessment if that's what it takes. Obviously the government and the Department of Fisheries don't have the manpower to conduct an assessment of that nature. But they can put a moratorium on killing these turtles until such time that an effective assessment can be done."

As of 1:00 p.m. yesterday the site had garnered 2,478 signatures and, having only being launched two weeks ago on September 11, Borrows said those numbers are pretty impressive.

"Our original goal was 1,000 signatures and we reached that in a little over three days. So we increased it to 2,000 and when we went pass that marked we bumped it up to 2,500," said Burrows.

In fact, the website has been visited by people all over the world with signatures from The Bahamas, California, New York, Arizona, Alabama, Florida, Belgium, Michigan, the Virgin Islands, Texas, Canada, Illinois, New Jersey and even the United Kingdom.

"We could keep it up forever, but we want to get some action. We hope that the relevant authorities would take the time to read through the petition," Burrows said. "There are a lot of comments made by a lot of the people who signed it, both Bahamian and foreign, there are a lot of the comments related to the environmental aspects and there are a lot of comments that relate to tourism."

The petition points out that five of the seven species of sea turtles are found in Bahamian waters; these are the Loggerhead, Green, Hawksbill, Leatherback and Kemp's Ridley turtles.

The petition goes on to say that while current Fisheries laws prohibit the taking of Hawksbill turtles, they allow the taking of Loggerhead and Green turtles, and do not address the Leatherback or Kemp's Ridley turtles at all.

"The only prohibitions imposed upon fishermen are a closed season from April 1 to July 31, and a minimum back size length of 24" for Green turtles and 30" for Loggerhead turtles," the petition reveals.

There are those who come to Caribbean countries like The Bahamas for the wildlife that they can't see in the middle of the United States or even on the coast anymore, Burrows said, pointing out that people are horrified that to learn that The Bahamas Fisheries laws allow the catching and killing of these turtles.

This is expressed in the petition, along with the fact that The Bahamas is a party to the Convention of International Trade on Endangered Species, better known as the (CITES) Agreement, which lists all marine turtles as endangered or threatened.

The group also addresses the inhumane and cruel treatment of the turtles after they are caught and held captive before being killed and/or sold.

"They are flipped upside down, rendered helpless and unable to move, and often left in the sun for days in this manner, which results in dehydration and tremendous suffering.

"They are then killed by either decapitation or slitting their throat," the site revealing, adding that the practice, known as animal cruelty, is defined in the Penal Code of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas under Sections 223, 225, 226 and 230.

The group is not asking for something that is not reasonable or hasn't been enacted in the majority of the countries, Burrows said, adding that she knows of no fisherman in The Bahamas who calls themselves turtle fishermen.

"We're not trying to take away someone's livelihood here. The turtle catch seems to be an opportunistic type of thing — if a fisherman is out on the water and may be having a bad day or if he sees the turtle he may catch it.

"But I don't know of anyone that goes out looking for turtles and I don't think that in this day and age in The Bahamas that we are no longer allowed to eat turtle that or there is anyone here who can say their family is going to go hungry," she said.

The turtle meat, she said, is seemingly a delicacy that Bahamians can live without.

She said she was heartened to read several comments from Bahamian fishermen on the site who evidently used to catch turtles but have since ceased.

Burrows remarked that there is no big market for turtle catching and these animals do not fetch that much money where people can pay their mortgage from it.

Cognizant that changing laws takes time, Burrows said the group believes that the moratorium will help their cause and in the long run save a lot more endangered turtles.

© 2007 The Freeport News