Conservationists: Let us protect egg-laying turtles at night

Environmental conservation groups are calling on Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh to permit them to access beaches at night to monitor and collect data during sea-turtle nesting season.

Sea turtles are listed as environmentally sensitive species. The turtle-nesting season began on March 1 and ends on August 30.

The Public Health Ordinance only allows access to beaches between 6 am and 6 pm. Monitoring the turtles would be difficult with this restriction, since most sea turtle species usually come ashore at night during high tide.

At a press conference on Monday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said, “Now should possibly be the safest time for turtles, because no one is allowed on the beach to poach eggs or to kill the turtles or ride on their backs.”

Deyalsingh said if he grants one group an exemption he would have to give exemptions to other groups.

Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) said Deyalsingh’s decision to prohibit midnight beach patrols “makes absolutely no sense and will encourage an escalation of illegal poaching” and leaves the turtles at the mercy of poachers.

In a release on Tuesday afternoon, FFOS said the efforts of conservationists must be seen as critical and commendable. Failure to assist with protecting these endangered species would be a waste of 30 years of work and leave a dent in TT’s million-dollar eco-tourism product.

“It was confirmed in 2020 that as a result of the implementation of covid19 regulations and the lack of patrolling by community-based organisations there was an upsurge in poaching and marine turtle destruction,” it said.

On Tuesday morning Nature Seekers TT also called on the minister to rethink his decision, after the group was denied permission to access beaches at night for sea-turtle conservation activities for the 2021 season.

In a release, accompanied by a photo of a dead sea turtle, with wounds to the neck and its flippers cut off, it said because of the restrictions the group decided to cancel its work this season.

Nature Seekers said it "would like to implore the minister to reconsider his position thus allowing for the continued conservation of this vulnerable national treasure.”

Other conservation groups noted increases in turtle poaching across both Trinidad and Tobago in 2020.

Planning and Development Minister Allyson West sent a stern warning to poachers preying on sea turtles during this year's nesting seasons, in a release on Tuesday afternoon.

This warning came after pictures of skeleton remains of sea dead turtles surfaced on social media this week. One conservation group believes the pictures were taken in Trinidad.

West reminded perpetrators there is a penalty of $100,000 and imprisonment for two years for poaching environmentally sensitive species.

She promised the ministry would continue its role in preserving TT’s biodiversity and environmental resources as the country sought to achieve sustainable development goals.