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Title: Aamakaar, The Turtle People
Year: 2002
Produced by: Sunil Shanbag
Directed by: Surabhi Sharma
Distributed by: Chrysalis Films
Time: 76 minutes
Price: variable – details at <http://www.turtlepeople.com/FACT.HTM>

Each of these video documentaries focuses on a different sea turtle conservation issue in India. The subject of “Killing Fields” is likely to be more familiar to readers of the Marine Turtle Newsletter: the massive olive ridley nesting population in the state of Orissa on the east coast of India, and in particular some of the threats and pressures facing those turtles. The subject of “The Turtle People” is the struggle of a small coastal village in the state of Kerala on the west coast of India that also happens to host small numbers of nesting olive ridleys on its beach. The approach and style of the films are vastly different, and seen together provide excellent examples of the range of depth and method used by documentaries.

The shorter documentary, “Killing Fields,” takes a more traditional approach. The entire film is narrated by an unseen, deepvoiced person, who explains that nearly 100,000 dead adult olive ridleys have washed ashore on beaches in Orissa in the past few years. We are told that the cause is unregulated mechanized fisheries, namely trawlers and gillnetters. Images of turtle carcasses on the beach or floating rafts of dead olive ridleys entangled in a discarded gillnet drive home the negative impact of some fisheries on turtles in the area. There is also discussion of the manipulation of the nesting beach by the establishment of Casuarina tree farms and excessive lighting pressures. The solutions to these problems, we are told, is for the government to enforce its regulations regarding mandatory TED use by mechanized trawlers, the removal of tree farms from the beach, reduction of artificial light hitting the beach, and area closures for gillnetters around the time of mass nesting events by the olive ridleys. Although it sounds simple enough, this reviewer
wonders if the documentary takes an overly simplistic approach. First of all, that there are no interviews involving fishermen, government officials, etc. makes it difficult to gauge the complexity of the issue or the variety of viewpoints that surely must exist. Second, simplistic statements such as “artisanal fishermen make an adequate living” beg greater discussion. Again, interviews with actual fishermen would have provided greater insight. Finally, sea turtle mortality associated with fisheries is usually a complex issue that likely requires a multifaceted and multilayered approach for a successful solution. Although the documentary’s call for greater enforcement of fisheries laws may reduce olive ridley mortality in Orissa, it probably would not eliminate all of it. The greatest achievement of “The Killing Fields” is that is raises awareness of the threats facing the nesting population of olive ridleys in Orissa. Little wonder, then, that the producer of the documentary is named “Awareness.”

The longer documentary, “The Turtle People,” lives up to its title: it is more about people than turtles. In fact, I was surprised to see rather few images of turtles during the entire 76 minutes of the video. Rather, this is the story of the people living in the Kolavipalam and how steady erosion of the sandy beach in front of this small coastal village is disrupting their lives. The villagers are largely dependent on fishing and growing coconuts for their
livelihoods. The sandy stretch of beach in front of the houses plays an important role not only in acting as a substratum for fish-drying, but also as suitable nesting habitat for the olive ridleys that lay no more than 100 nests on the beach each year. In response to the increasing loss of the sand and the threat of predation, several of the community members established a protected hatchery where they relocate eggs for incubation. Some hatchlings are also kept in tanks for education and/or headstarting purposes, although these aspects are never fully elaborated in the documentary. Little emphasis is placed on the turtle conservation project established by the villagers (whence their sobriquet “The Turtle People”); rather, the focus is on the inhabitants and how they perceive the threat of erosion and environmental degradation. The villagers identify sand mining from the nearby river estuary as the direct cause of increased erosion, and explain how they have mounted protests, including establishing a huge human chain, to raise awareness and to demand that local authorities enforce legal statutes limiting mining activities.

Unlike the first documentary, “The Turtle People” is largely made up of interviews with different individuals, allowing them to tell their stories in their own words. This not only provides greater context for some of the issues and struggles facing the village, but also shows that this conservation problem, like many, is quite complex. This point is driven home when the director of the documentary visits the sand miners and finds that they too are facing problems and challenges at home, just as the inhabitants of Kolavipalam. In the end, there is no simple solution or call for greater enforcement. Instead, the documentary is more a focus and celebration of the
people and their ongoing positive struggle in the face of disturbing troubles.

Both documentaries are recommended and provide an excellent opportunity to explore different approaches to conservation problems.

Reviewed by Matthew H. Godfrey, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, 307 Live Oak Street, Beaufort, NC 28516 USA (E-mail: mgodfrey@seaturtle.org)

Title: Sea Turtles: An Ecological Guide
Year: 2004
Author: D.A Gulko and K.L Eckert
Publisher: Mutual Publishing, Honolulu, <http://www.mutualpublishing.com>
ISBN: 1-56647-651-8
Pages: 128pp
Price: US$18.95 with a proportion being paid to WIDECAST

In retrospect, it is surprising how long it has taken for a vacant niche to be filled, but filled it has been. In the words of one of the authors (KLE), “We designed it to fill what we perceived to be a persistent void in the lay literature – i.e. something for an intelligent reader that fell somewhere between a fictional story….and an edited textbook.” It appears the authors have done this well as it is now sold out and on its second printing!

The book takes a modular format with some fifty subsections each of 1-5 pages dealing with a different topic ranging from “evolution” to “the lost years” to “the tumor problem”. An effort seems to have been made to summarise most of the scientific knowledge available and no doubt given the book’s length and style, the depth in which this is covered will not please everyone. The authors undoubtedly do a good job especially if one considers the book as an aid to environmental education in children and the lay public. In addition, five pages are given to a bibliography of resources; some accessible and some arcane. Many of them are available online and provision of the URL in these cases would have been useful.

Every page is very colourful and richly illustrated although in slightly different styles across the book. Typically pages have less than 50% text and there are a great number of beautiful photographs mixed with cartoons and more traditional semi-technical illustrations. I must admit I personally found the style too noisy but what do I know? On the train where I was reviewing the book, a family with two children found it interesting when offered it to beta test.

My criticisms are few. Inevitably, I found a few spots where facts could be corrected/reshaped but in general, the quality of information was high. The conservation section appears too short. There are approaches that would have made great material within the remit of this book. The issue of direct utilisation is dealt with in a two page spread focusing on aphrodisiacs, intrinsic trade in luxury items and indigenous take without mention of poverty-driven subsistence food use, co-operative approaches to egg harvest and the potential for managed turtle fisheries. In a single paragraph on turtle farming/ranching the authors give what to me is a one sided set of evidence and leave it up to the reader to decide. Given the origin of the authors, it is perhaps unsurprising that the book is decidedly USA-ocentric. This may serve to slightly limit its full global potential. This bias extends from the use of examples to the use of Imperial (i.e. non metric) units for measurement. Given metric units are a global scientific standard, educational books should take on a role in promoting these units of science. The pounds and inches can come parenthetically.

The book closes by telling of a separate planned “Teachers Activity Booklet” that promises to be an excellent resource to compliment a book which in summary is a must for all environmental educators working with sea turtles.

Reviewed by Brendan Godley, Editor, MTN, (E-mail: bgodley@seaturtle.org).

Title: Predicting Extinction: Fundamental Flaws in IUCN’s Red List System, Exemplified by the Case of Sea Turtles
Year: 2004
Author: N. Mrosovsky
Publisher: Self-published
ISBN: 0-9734777-0-9
Pages: 70pp
Source: <http://members.seaturtle.org/mrosovsky/>

Professor Nicholas Mrosovsky has often been avant-garde with regard to the more difficult marine turtle conservation issues. A number of his essays, many embellishments of his writings as founding editor of the Marine Turtle Newsletter, were published in 1983 as a small, thought provoking book “Conserving Sea Turtles”. More than two decades on, this anthology still punches well above its weight and should be an obligate part of the reading lists of all students of sea turtle biology and conservation. Long out of print, it has recently been made freely available online at the author’s personal website detailed above.

A sentinel chapter in his 1983 book was entitled “Dangerous Categories”, and discussed classifying risk to populations of sea turtles. Across the subsequent years, Mrosovsky has continued to be one of the most vocal critics of the IUCN Red Listing process, with particular regard to how it has been used for assessing the status of marine turtles. In his second little book published 17 years later, he further develops several critical arguments against the conventional international listing of hawksbills (Mrosovsky N (2000) Sustainable Use of Hawksbill Turtles. Issues in Wildlife Management no 1, Key Center for Tropical Wildlife Management, 107pp). This second booklet gives the reader an interesting overview into what arguably is the most catalytic of marine turtle conservation debates.

“Predicting Extinction” is his third little book on sea turtles. It is a 70-page critique of the red-listing process, is self-published and made freely available at the author’s website. The points made are argued very clearly and authoritatively. It has been reviewed and well received in other publications (e.g. Pilcher (2004) <http://www. int-res.com/journals/esr/contents.html>) and it has already featured in two editorials in this newsletter (MTN 106:1-3; MTN 106:4-6). Given its free access, I highly recommend reading “Predicting Extinction” and, as I am sure the author would prefer, ask the reader to make up their mind whether red lists should be scrapped, refined or left as they are. Can they be made to work for sea turtles? If not, what system will work? It appears that we still have a very long way to go. Action needs to be focused on improving collection, collation, analysis and dissemination of data that allow us to adequately assess relative conservation status. It would appear that the MTSG feels that some sort of regional sublisting is a suitable option (MTN106: 4-6; MTN 107:15-16). This leads to an acute challenge: establishing a definition of meaningful levels of sub-specific division that will allow increased resolution.

Reviewed by Brendan Godley, Editor, MTN (E-mail: bgodley@seaturtle.org).