Environment
Saving Gentle Giants
SPREP Declares This The
Marine turtles have been a part of ocean life for millions of years, playing an important role in the lives of Pacific peoples. Their rapid decline raises serious questions as to how much longer they can remain with us. Such is the concern of the region's environment organization, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), that it has declared 2006 as the Pacific Year of the Sea Turtle.
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The
last 50-100 years have seen a marked decrease in turtle numbers
in the region.
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SPREP's Marine Species Officer, Lui Bell, fears the worst for these benign reptiles unless immediate action is taken. "We need three things if we are going to have any chance of turning this trend around," he says. "We want to promote more community conservation of turtle nesting sites, strengthen national legislation and policies to encourage better management, and build partnerships for long-term turtle conservation."
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Latest research suggests that, despite some legislative and traditional controls on turtle harvesting, the last 50 to100 years have seen a marked decrease in turtle populations in the region. Of the seven sea turtle species in the world, six are found in Pacific waters. Three species - the green, hawksbill, and giant leatherback - commonly breed and forage across many Pacific Islands. Sadly human involvement has played a major part in placing turtle populations on death row.
In some islands states such as Vanuatu and Fiji, turtles are killed for traditional reasons, such as the celebration of Vanuatu's first Yam Harvest. Most laws concerning the harvesting of turtles in Pacific countries apply a minimum size limit rather than an outright ban. But this does not protect breeding-size females who obviously need protection because of their value in increasing populations. Most countries prohibit the harvesting of eggs while some declare a moratorium that coincides with the nesting season.
Marine Professor Leon Zann of the University of the South Pacific (USP) describes legislation on turtle harvesting in Fiji as "not very effective," after nine turtles were caught for a chiefly ceremony recently in Rakiraki village. He told the Wansolwara newspaper that, although permission was needed from the Fisheries Department to do so, "turtles are so threatened that extreme measures such as total bans are necessary. This desperate situation should be explained to the Great Council of Chiefs so they can make a collective decision."
The green and hawksbill turtles are the most common species found in Fijian waters. The World Conservation Union Red List, the most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animals, has both turtle species on their Critically Endangered list.
Dr. Ken Mackay of USP's Institute of Marine Resources says numbers are not only falling, there is some regional concern from other countries that their turtles are "being eaten in Fiji." Green turtles nest to the east of Fiji in: American Samoa, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia; and to the west in: Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Marine Species Officer, Penina Solomona, maintains that while the traditional and cultural value of turtles needs to be considered, protective measures are a priority. "We recognize that turtles have played and always will play a significant role in the traditions and culture of the people of the Pacific islands … the indication is that turtle populations are at particularly low levels and cannot support the current levels of harvest," she says.
Fishermen have long known that period from October through February is the main nesting months. Where once the attitude was to take only as much as needed, it is now common for entire beaches of eggs and turtles to be devastated, with scant regard to the long-term impact from such actions.
"In part this is why we need community support to protect the foraging and breeding grounds and migratory corridors for turtles and marine mammals," says Lui Bell, "and why we need to look at ways of minimizing or negotiating any threats such as harvesting eggs on traditionally owned land."
Much of the data collected for turtles in the region have been inconsistent or of variable quality. There would be a data run of three or four years and then nothing.
What marine environmentalists need is high-quality information to build a concise overall picture. Studies made elsewhere have already placed long odds on the iconic giant Pacific leatherback's chances of survival during this century. In the journal Nature, scientists from Pennsylvania's Drexel University Center for Marine Conservation say they believe the giant Pacific leatherback sea turtles are a lot closer to extinction than first thought. Typically scores are strangled or drowned in the gill nets of long-liners. Their report underlines how over-harvesting has seen the devastation of breeding grounds, compounding the destruction being caused by plastics, pollutants, and by-catches.
Turtle tagging remains the most widely used and least expensive type of data collection, but the emphasis on who collects the information has changed somewhat. In parts of Vanuatu, monitoring has become a community effort: everyone from government officials to village children are helping to protect and track tagged turtles. Along the Huon Coast of Papua New Guinea, eight communities with significant leatherback nesting beaches have come together to form a network to help reduce the almost 100 percent egg harvest of nesting turtles. During the year other communities from the western provinces of the Solomon Islands will be introduced to this approach.
Let's hope these examples will catch on in the rest of the Pacific!
The writer is the director of the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, which is based in Apia, Samoa. See www.sprep.org.ws.
