Update on turtles on Carriacou, Grenada

An earlier post included a link to a video of turtles on their backs on the shore of Carriacou, one of the Grenadine islands. An e-mail from the Kido Foundation puts the incident into a different perspective:

From: kido-ywf@spiceisle.com
Subject: reply to your mail about sea turtles in Carriacou
Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2008 20:03:04 -0400

We recently received this link about the 5 Carriacou turtles.

Here is the story.
These very same 5 turtles have been purchased by Kido, tagged and released at sea offshore on the same day they were caught on Feb. 28, 2008.

Kido Foundation, since 2003, launched a Rescue & Release program for sea turtles caught by fishermen during the open hunting season (1st of September - 30th of April). Kido buys them and asks visitors, when possible, to contribute. We also sell T-shirts to raise funds for the purchases.

So far we rescued and released 234 sea turtles and it must be said that the majority of the local population is behind us in this.

In the late morning of Feb. 28, 2008, we had been alerted by two couples of tourists visiting Kido (situated in the North of Carriacou; the 5 turtles were in Tyrrel bay,
South). The fishermen had not called us this time, but we managed to reach there in the afternoon by boat and free all 5 turtles with the assistance of the dive operator Lumbadive. These 5 hawksbills cost us this time 1,500 EC$.

In this occasion two of the five hawksbills were payed for and "adopted" by the same visitors who had alerted us. The rest was our own money.

The Youtube video must have been taken before we arrived.

We had repetitively asked fishermen not to overturn their caught turtles; they eventually resorted to tying them by their fins and keeping them straight under a boat or a tree in the shade. This time they did not do that, apparently because the chief fisher we usually deal with was not present (he later reported to us when we
complained). Prior to Kido Sea Turtle Rescue operations, caught sea turtles were always dragged ashore in the most brutal way and left upside down under the sun until slaughtered.

Since Kido pays market value for healthy live sea turtles, we could at least stipulate some rules of the game and now in Tyrrel bay most turtles are kept in the shade and in the straight position. Regrettably, fishers in town and other areas do differently; we try to set voluntary compliance standards and it takes time to sink in.

Most of these magnificent mature hawksbills of both genders we rescue and release are caught by net within the Sandy Island Marine Protected Area (not yet officially
recognized as such). The fishers admit that they lose 30% of their catch by drowning.

Of course, we can only purchase & release but a few specimen. The excess live animals, which cannot be sold at the local market, is subsequently shipped to Grenada fish market, with indescribable torture for the poor animals.

What next?
An official moratorium on sea turtle catches, as already successfully enforced in most of the other Caribbean islands, would help to stop the slaughter and allow for
some recovery of the stock. Sea turtles are listed as Critically Endangered, which means that within the last three generations their numbers declined by 90%! Among
other consequences, few or no sea turtles in the oceans provoke serious imbalances in the marine ecosystem, affecting local fisheries as well.

Best regards
Marina

Marina Fastigi, Ph.D.
Kido Foundation
Carriacou
Grenada
West Indies
Tel: (473) 443 7936
www.kido-projects.com