Bahamas proposes full ban on turtle harvesting

From a post on the listserve CTURTLE@LISTS.UFL.EDU:

For the past few years, CCC and a handful of groups working in The Bahamas has been urging Bahamian leaders to revise their arcane laws regarding sea turtle harvesting. Despite declining numbers of several species being targeted, particularly loggerheads, hawksbills and leatherbacks, there still has been an open season on sea turtles there.

Today, the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources announced that as of April 1, 2009, sea turtles will be fully protected in The Bahamas!

Hopefully, the action taken today by The Bahamas will encourage other island nations around the Caribbean to toughen their own laws regarding turtle harvesting.

I want to thank all of you who signed on to petitions and sent your own letters to Bahamian leaders. Together, we have achieved an important victory in the effort to protect and recover sea turtle populations in the Wider Caribbean.

It is very important to please take a moment and congratulate the Minister and his team at the Ministry for this long awaited positive move for the conservation of sea turtles. Send notes to: The Honourable Minister Larry Cartwright (LARRYCARTWRIGHT@BAHAMAS.GOV.BS).

David Godfrey
Executive Director
Caribbean Conservation Corporation
david@cccturtle.org

And then a clarification in another post on the list serve:

There is certainly encouraging news coming out of The Bahamas, and, after working with The Bahamas National Trust and the Department of Fisheries (now Marine Resources) for several decades, we are very pleased with the progress.

However, The Bahamas government has NOT YET declared that sea turtles will be fully protected as of 1 April 2009. They have announced PROPOSED regulations that will protect all sea turtles from commercial harvest, purchase, or sale as of 31 December 2008 and give sea turtles full protection as of 1 April 2009. These proposed regulations are now open for public comment. We believe that protection from commercial harvest is almost certain. However, because of the cultural traditions of subsistence living in The Bahamas, the full protection as of 1 April 2009 is not as certain.

We encourage you to send in comments. If you have visited or plan to visit The Bahamas, you should include that information. Public comments should be addressed to:

The Director
Department of Marine Resources
Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources
P. O. Box N-3028
Nassau, N. P.,
Bahamas, or
Email: fisheries@bahamas.gov.bs ,or
Fax: (242)-393-0238

Best wishes,
Karen Bjorndal and Alan Bolten