Little can be done to restrict out of season turtle hunting – hunter

This country’s chief fisheries officer is appealing to persons to abstain from purchasing the meat of sea turtles from the individuals who are slaughtering the animals during the closed season.

Jennifer Cruickshank Howard told SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday that the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries{{more}} is aware of the illegal out of season tradition, and is determined to put a stop to the practice.

She said that the division intends to increase its patrol of the areas where the turtles, mainly Leatherbacks and Hawksbills, frequent when they are ready to lay their eggs.

“Every year, we have been having complaints that persons are in the habit of removing the turtle eggs and also slaughtering these turtles when they come to nest.

“We have in the past had charges and convictions; we intend to do more patrols. We have done two patrols for the month,” Cruickshank-Howard said.

The closed season for turtle hunting is March 1 to July 31.

Acting on information, SEARCHLIGHT journeyed to the Brighton beach on Wednesday and observed first-hand the rotting carcass of a Leatherback turtle that was recently killed.

Not too far from the approximately five foot long shell, SEARCHLIGHT saw the skeletal remains of what appeared to be the large endangered reptiles.

A mature female Leatherback turtle can weigh from 350 to over 1,000 pounds.

They usually venture to shore at night, where they lay as many as 1,000 eggs in a breeding season.

On another section of the beach, SEARCHLIGHT encountered an individual who gave a poacher’s view of the illegal practice.

The individual said that the animal’s meat, a local delicacy, fetches a healthy price on the black market. He expressed doubt that there is anything that could be done to enforce the restriction on hunting the animal.

“The head alone, when it cut up, could full a tall bucket, and that could go for more than two hundred dollars. One good size turtle could full five tall buckets,” SEARCHLIGHT was informed.

“If I on the beach… and I see a turtle, it dead. Believe me. In season, out season, it dead. No government and no law could stop that,” the individual added.

Cruickshank-Howard pointed out that authorities have difficulty enforcing the law, since most persons refuse to cooperate when asked about the poaching of the turtles.

“Even though persons are slaughtering them and we heard that they are taking them around in the village the next day and they are being sold, but you see, nobody wants to call persons’ names, so this is the problem.

“When you ask who is selling the turtle meat, nobody is saying who, so we are asking persons not to purchase any part of any turtle during the closed season.

“We would like to ask persons to desist from interfering with the turtles while they are nesting and not to kill the turtles, not to remove the eggs from their nesting sites, and also to ask persons not to purchase the turtle meat.”

In 2010, Sandy Bay resident Alaison Stapleton was fined $4,000 or in default spend one year in prison, when he was found by police with 71 turtle eggs in his possession.