Reef Conservation

There has been a bit of controversy and new groups that have started lately in regards to the open season for taking of turtles in the BVI.



I myself, naively thought for many years that they would all be protected, until I came across them being cleaned in Little Harbour on Peter. That prompted me to do a bit more research on it. I subsequently then also found turtle shells at the fishermen's landing on Anegada.

I, am not entirely sure where I come down on this debate yet. On one hand, I love turtles, and I love finding them in the water to take pictures of. I especially like it when the older ones sit and let you scrape barnacles off of them.

On the other hand, I do fish and eat fish and wonder if it is any different? Besides wondering whether I have any right to jump into telling others their traditions are wrong. Over the years, Turtle Products on the menus have declined in the BVI (Where did I think this turtle meat came from in early years? I don't know, perhaps the same place as most things, in a package from a far off place...?)



I took the time to actually read a report I had " An assessment of the Status and Exploitation of Marine Turtles in the British Virgin Islands". The link to this PDF for you to read yourself is here.



It is wordy, so here in very simplistic terms is a few facts I picked out. We basically have 4 types of turtles here. Loggerhead (maybe) Green and Hawksbill (most common) and Leatherback (not common)

There are 20-50 fishermen who are licensed to harvest turtles, and then loggerhead and leatherback are prohibited at all time.

The open season is 1 dec until 31 of March and they must be over 20 lbs.

Perhaps around +/- 200 a year are still taken. There are no historical sources prior to the 20th century referencing numbers.

"Trunkers" traditionally harvested Turtle Oil. Turtle eggs also used to be popular, but are no longer popular. There are references to turtles being exported commercially from the BVI back in the 1930's.

The traditional turtling spots in the BVI are basically the same as fishing, The settlement on Anegada, Fish Bay and East End, Tortola...



Here is a link to a Facebook group that has started which may be one of the sources to give you also more information to make up your mind.

Here also is a link to the SEA TURTLE ORG website



Here also is the Link to Conservation and Fisheries, BVI web site



Tweet

Received an email from Casey at DIVEBVI who said a fisherman from Anegada had brought this picture into her store yesterday. He had caught it on the west end in 15 feet of water, yesterday over Turtle Grass...

Got your corks and markers??

Remember Suzie the turtle? Received this note from Conservation and Fisheries today...
"She has wandered all over the BVI and is in Anegada.We are starting to think she may be trying to nest up there but because the gps map datum is different than Google earth, it is hard to tell her exact location - it may be off about 500 meters. There are also only a few "fixes" a day with Argos (the satellite company) and if she isn't at the surface, the data isn't transmitted.

Anyways, if anyone is up in Anegada and feels like walking the beach to look for turtle tracks, she would most likely nest east of Loblolly Bay, this area has a higher density of nesting greens (see attached article about BVI turtles).