seaturtle.org :
MTN :
ARCHIVES :
Sign In
Marine Turtle Newsletter 69:25-28, © 1995
LEGAL BRIEFS
GOOD NEWS FROM BHITARKANIKA -- Further to the court case WWF vs Orissa Government, pending in Orissa High Court, the Court appointed an expert committee which has submitted a very favourable report from the conservation view point. The report calls for restricted use of the Talchua jetty [see MTN 63], control over prawn (shrimp) farming, and suspension of road construction in the sanctuary. The Orissa Government has elected not to introduce a bill to remove parts of the Bhitarkanika Sanctuary from protected area status. In the meantime, I and others have met with the Honourable Shri Biju Patnaik, Chief Minister, Orissa who is very much concerned about olive ridley sea turtles nesting in the Sanctuary. In response to his request, the United States Government has agreed to provide a technology transfer to enable the use of turtle excluder devices (TEDs) in offshore waters. As Orissa State elections are scheduled for March 7 and 9, we will have to wait until the formation of a new ministry to pursue the protection of the sanctuary, with its turtles and other wildlife, in a proper way. Letters sent from around the world by MTN readers have greatly helped our cause. PLEASE, send letters thanking the Chief Minister for his concern, his influence in the decision not to de-reserve parts of the Bhitarkanika Sanctuary, and his initiative on behalf of securing TED technology for India: Chief Minister, Orissa, Secretariat, Bhubaneswar-751001, Orissa, INDIA; FAX: (91) (674) 400 100. Source: P. Mohanty-Hejmadi in litt., 13 February 1995.
* * *
BAN TAKES TURTLE OFF FIJIAN MENU -- Suva, Fiji (AP) -- Worried that [sea] turtles could be hunted to extinction, the government [of Fiji] will ban sales of the seafaring reptile whose meat is regarded as a delicacy in this South Pacific island nation. Acting Director of Fisheries, Simone Tuilaucala said Tuesday the Cabinet has decided to outlaw turtle sales for 12 months from March 1995. A permanent ban would be possible after that, he said. Islanders will still be able to kill turtles for ceremonial, customary or subsistence purposes as they have done for centuries. Environmentalists warn that six turtle species are in severe decline from over-exploitation. They say many of the slow breeding creatures are being killed as they migrate across the South Pacific -- between northern Australia and French Polynesia -- to feed, breed and nest. Fiji is one of the region's biggest consumers of turtle meat. Turtles are sometimes sold in markets alive as they lie helplessly on the back of their shells. Meat is also sold on roadsides where vendors scoop it out of upturned shells. Latest available figures show that about 20 tons of turtle meat was sold in Fijian markets in 1984. This is estimated to represent about 800 adult turtles. Tuilaucala said an education campaign would attempt to teach Fijians that if they continued to kill turtles at the current rate, there would soon be none left. Source: Samoa News, 7 February 1995. [N.B. In 1991, Fiji banned the export of unworked turtle shell, prohibited the sale of turtle eggs, and enacted a four-month closed season; see MTN 52:1.]
* * *
ENDANGERED SEA TURTLE REBOUNDS -- The Kemp's ridley sea turtle, long considered the world's most critically endangered sea turtle species, appears to be making a comeback. Surveys of nests at Rancho Nuevo, Mexico, the turtles' only major nesting area, show that the [annual] number of nesting females -- which had declined from an estimated 40,000 in 1947 to fewer than 200 in 1985 -- nearly tripled to an estimated 580 by last summer [N.B. 40,000 turtles, estimated from film footage, nested in one day in 1947, the total nesting population that year would have been considerably larger]. Credit for the dramatic rebound was given to an aggressive international effort to protect turtle nesting sites, and to the use of devices that prevent turtles from being trapped and drowned in shrimp nets. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) wildlife attorney Michael J. Bean, along with the Center for Marine Conservation, helped to secure the regulations requiring the use of turtle excluder devices (TED's) and the enforcement of these rules. The once-abundant sea turtle remains in peril, but Dr. Richard Byles, coordinator of the US Fish and Wildlife Service's turtle recovery program, has suggested that the Kemp's ridley might reach a goal of 10,000 nesting turtle by 2010 "if we can continue to protect beach nest sites and to keep turtles out of shrimp nets." EDF is continuing to press for strict enforcement of the TED requirement for shrimp trawlers in the Gulf of Mexico. Source: EDF Letter, 1995, 26(2):8.
* * *
MALI, ROMANIA, ERITREA AND SIERRA LEONE JOIN CITES -- The number of Parties to CITES [Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora] is now 126. The accession of the following countries came into force as of the date shown: Mali (16 October 1994), Romania (16 November 1994), Eritrea (22 January 1995), and Sierra Leone (26 January 1995). Source: adapted from WWF/IUCN TRAFFIC Bulletin, 1994, 15(1):1.
* * *
TURTLE PRODUCTS CONFISCATED IN HONG KONG -- On 25 July 1994, officers of the [Hong Kong] Agriculture and Fisheries Department seized 71 pairs of spectacle frames, thought to be crafted from tortoiseshell, from 10 outlets of a chain store selling spectacles. Offenders are liable to a fine of HK$ 25,000 (US$ 3240) on first conviction and HK$ 50,000 plus six months' imprisonment for a further offence. There were 273 seizures in the first 6 months of the year in connection with illegal importation, exportation and possession of endangered species, of which 29 were related to sea turtles. Source: Agriculture and Fisheries Department Press Release, 25 July 1994 [as reported in WWF/IUCN TRAFFIC Bulletin, 1994, 15(1):39].
* * *
U. S. SHRIMPERS MAY FACE FISHING BAN -- A federal official Wednesday [22 February 1995] warned that Texas shrimpers could face fishing bans this year to prevent massive turtle deaths [see MTN 67:2-5], but angry shrimpers countered they were once again being wrongly blamed for the problem. Andrew J. Kemmerer, regional director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, said shrimping bans would be implemented as a last resort if other enforcement measures don't work in protecting endangered sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. Source: excerpted from the Houston Post, 23 February 1995.
* * *
TEXAS TURTLE STRANDINGS UNUSUALLY HIGH -- More than two dozen dead sea turtles turned up along the South Texas coast [in February] 1995], prompting federal officials to send an emergency enforcement team to make sure shrimpers are using turtle excluder devices, or TEDs, to save the endangered species. While some 26 turtles (12 loggerhead, 8 green, 6 unidentified) found may have drowned in shrimp trawls, six to nine are believe to have been killed by dredging machinery that was being used in a channel near Port Isabel, said Andrew Kemmerer, southeast regional director of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Officials ordered the dredging stopped, he said. Investigators searching for a cause of the alarming spike in winter turtle deaths also detected a rare winter change in currents along the South Texas coast that may have contributed to the turtle kill. "That water could have brought some turtles in that then were available to mortality by whatever factors," said Kemmerer. Except for two years in which killer freezes caught turtles in shallow inshore waters, this February's sea turtle toll was the highest since 1986. Source: adapted from the Houston Chronicle, 9 March 1995.
* * *
TURTLE SURVEY IN CUBA -- Observations in 1992 of large turtle carapaces on beaches along the southwest coast of Cuba and other turtle products for sale in local tourist shops in the area, prompted an investigation in July 1994 into the status of marine turtles in this region of the Caribbean. The ten-week survey was undertaken by a group of volunteers from the Exploration Society and the Tropical Marine Research Unit at the University of York, U.K. The group mapped the feeding and nesting areas of the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), green turtle (Chelonia mydas), hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), and Kemp's ridley turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) and investigated the fate of those specimens captured in local waters. [N.B. No Kemp's ridleys were found; T. Austin in litt., 25 January 1995.] The continued loss of nesting beaches to coastal construction (mainly associated with development of the tourist industry), was also examined. This expedition formed the first of an anticipated group of three annual expeditions to assess the status of marine turtles. The Scientific Coordinator of the expedition, Timothy Austin, welcomes any comments or advice for the further two expeditions that are proposed, and can be contacted at the Tropical Marine Research Unit, Biology Department, University of York, York YO1 5DD, U.K. Source: excerpted from WWF/IUCN TRAFFIC Bulletin, 1994, 15(1):7.
* * *
FLORIDA RESTRICTS GILL NETTING TO PROTECT SEA TURTLES -- On 5 October 1994 the Florida Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) recommended closing areas in the waters of east-central Florida to gill net fishing between January and May to reduce turtle strandings. The recommendation is, in part, the result of the Center for Marine Conservation (CMC) notifying the State of Florida in January 1994 that it would file a lawsuit if turtle strandings in the area did not decrease. Consequently, state and federal observers monitored the pompano, bluefish, and Spanish mackerel fisheries in the region and reported in August that protection for turtles was inadequate.
The problem is similar to the more familiar problem in the Gulf of Mexico between the shrimp fishery and sea turtles: at certain time of the year and in certain locations turtles tend to be in the same places that intense fishing is taking place. Turtles get caught in the fishing nets and drown. In east-central Florida, the worst season for interaction with gill nets is January to May in the waters from Ponce Inlet to Jupiter Inlet. Many of the sea turtles that wash up dead on these beaches bear evidence of net entanglement on their bodies.
The state has tried to address the problem, placing limits on the number and length of nets that could be placed, and stopping the practice of leaving nets untended for long periods of time. These efforts have done little to protect sea turtles, though, necessitating CMC's action one year ago January. Despite the October recommendations, the MFC modified its position in November and approved a less restrictive rule. Instead of a 24-hr closure, the rule prohibits gill netting at night in state waters from Ponce Inlet to Jupiter Inlet from January to June. Source: Ellen Peel, Center for Marine Conservation in litt., 7 March 1995.
* * *
SEA TURTLE MEETING IN JAPAN -- The International Workshop on the Manage-ment of Marine Turtles '95, sponsored by the Japan Bekko [Tortoiseshell] Association (JBA) and the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), was held on 8-10 March 1995 in Tokyo, Japan. The workshop was Chaired by Colin J. Limpus and Jeanne A. Mortimer; participants included 28 sea turtle biologists and resource managers from 12 countries. Japan has prohibited the importation of hawksbill turtle products since December 1992. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the current global status of the hawksbill in light of this trade ban, to evaluate further measures that JBA might make to enhance the status of hawksbill populations worldwide, and to investigate the possibility that hawksbill ranching may eventually produce a legal source of raw shell for the Japanese bekko industry. A ranching proposal by Cuba was discussed in light of new CITES guidelines [see J. P. Ross, this issue]. After intense dialogue, the meeting produced a set of recommendations to JBA offering guidelines for the funding of research and other activities, with an emphasis on the establishment of regional sea turtle management protocols. Source: Jeanne Mortimer in litt., 24 March 1995.
* * *
1995 SSAR ANNUAL MEETING -- The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR) will convene its 38th Annual Meeting on 8-13 August 1995 at Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina USA. The formal announcement brochure will be mailed to North American members of SSAR by the middle of January 1995. Overseas members and non-members can receive the brochure from Dr. Robert Wayne Van Devender, Department of Biology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina 28608 USA; tel: (704) 262-2665, FAX: (704) 262-2127, e-mail: vandevenderr@appstate.edu.