On this beach in Costa Rica, over harvesting means there will be no hatchlings this season to replenish the species. A species that has survived 200 million years will vanish. Thanks to my friend Jim L. for supplying the photos.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
CROUCHING TOWARDS EXTINCTION
Virtually all species of marine turtles in the world are classified as highly endangered, and some are on the verge of extinction. In all instances, human interference in their life cycle is to blame, such as beach front development, light pollution on their nesting sites, injuries from boat strikes, drownings in nets (also known as 'by catch'), and unsustainable over harvesting of their eggs. It is estimated that only one in every ten thousand turtle hatchlings will make it to adulthood. The following photo essay tells the story:
On this beach in Costa Rica, over harvesting means there will be no hatchlings this season to replenish the species. A species that has survived 200 million years will vanish. Thanks to my friend Jim L. for supplying the photos.
On this beach in Costa Rica, over harvesting means there will be no hatchlings this season to replenish the species. A species that has survived 200 million years will vanish. Thanks to my friend Jim L. for supplying the photos.
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I am weeping as I scroll these photos.
ReplyDeleteI am shocked that Costa Rica, a country that has played up it's ecological stewardship allows this to happen.
What the hell do they do with the eggs?! Surely there must be some alternative. This situation is horrible.
Some days I just cannot bear the wanton cruelty of man...
Damn it I hate people!
ReplyDeleteWe've done a fine job as watchdogs of the planet.
Maybe it's time humans went away, we shit on everything that's good.
I'm puzzled by seeing the turtles on the beach during the day - I've never heard of that. Here, they come out of the water in the middle of the night only.
ReplyDeleteBut hey - humans are a disease and diseases that kill the host die out of their own accord.
Take a deep breath.
ReplyDeleteExhale.
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/costa-rica-turtle-eggs.shtml
Imagine if one out of ten thousand humans lived to adulthood?
It'd be quieter in my neighborhood for starters...
I cannot say for sure what turtles these are; they seem too large to be Kemp's Ridley turtles, which are rarely over 24 to 30 inches in length (carapace). Kemp's Ridley turtles (Depidochelys kempi) are daytime nesters. They amass offshore and emerge at once, the mass arrival called an arribada in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteLast century, there were over 40,000 Kemp's Ridley turtles. Today, their numbers are only about 300 ... which is why these egg collection photos are so horrifying. The Kemp's Ridley will probably be the first species to go extinct.
Clarification: My friend Jim L. just called via cell phone to explain the photos. These are Olive Ridleys, which nest during the day en masse in arribadas just like the Kemp Ridleys.
ReplyDeleteOn this particular beach in Costa Rica, the poaching was so intense, the government granted a moratorium. According to terms of agreement, villagers may take eggs only during the first 36 hours of an arribada; however, the villagers decimate beaches well beyond the allowed time period. In other words, there is till poaching, and the Olive Ridley is dwindling in numbers.
In Central American cultures, turtle eggs are considered an aphrodisiac ... another human superstition to be sure. Just ask any rhino. It seems Right to Lifers are protecting the wrong species. They should be guarding beaches and handing out wire hangers to humans.
http://www.costarica.com/hoax/turtle/
ReplyDeleteCostaRica.com Refutes Misinformation on Illegal Turtle Poaching
Internet Hoax
A series of emails containing false claims has been circulating about the supposed “attack against nature" on Costa Rica’s beaches. The emails contain photographs depicting people digging up and allegedly stealing turtle eggs to sell. The turtle eggs are those of Olive Ridleys (Lepidochels olivacea), an endangered species that nests on the shores of the Ostional National Wildlife Refuge, on Costa Rica’s north Pacific coast. In actuality, the photos demonstrate the legal gathering of eggs, as part of a successful conservation program that has yielded a significant increase in Olive Ridley turtle hatchings. The Internet hoax falsely labels the photos as “theft” and an “international shame.”
Successful Conservation Program at Ostional
CostaRica.com wishes to clarify that the Internet images actually portray sustainable development within the Ostional community. The turtle egg harvest is a crucial part of a 13-year conservation project created and managed by the Costa Rican government. The Ostional National Wildlife Refuge hosts up to 200,000 Olive Ridley sea turtles between May and November and about 15,000 in the dry season. In large waves known as arribadas, the sea turtles lay thousands of eggs and inadvertently destroy hundreds of them as they return to the Pacific Ocean. The Egg Harvest Project (EHP) permits locals to continue their traditional practice of harvesting eggs while furthering the larger, long-term goal of preserving the Olive Ridley species. The project ensures a proper use of the eggs and avoids uncontrolled removal by residents. The egg harvests are strictly monitored; residents are only authorized to take eggs within the first day and a half of each mass egg-laying event. This unique conservation program is the pride of the country and has been highly praised by national and international scientists.
Increased Turtle Hatchings
For more than a decade, this program has proved successful with up to a 20% increase in Olive Ridley turtle hatchings. The current nesting data in Ostional demonstrates a stable population of Olive Ridleys, which can be attributed in part to the lack of decomposing eggs. The efforts of the EHP, in compliance with the Costa Rican government has proven successful, ensuring the continued survival of the Olive Ridley sea turtle.
A Note on Responsible Tourism
CostaRica.com does not condone the practice of poaching endangered wildlife of any kind and continues to promote responsible tourism in Costa Rica. We encourage all visitors to partake in eco-friendly activities such as guided turtle tours, to learn how to protect and conserve Costa Rica’s endangered animals.
Arthurstone ...
ReplyDeleteLet me rephrase that: "They should be guarding beaches and handing out wire hangers to Republicans."
The info I have came from the Sea Turtle Preservation Society (where I was once a board member) and the Marine Science Center (which has a permanent photo exhibit on mine).
Every year, our Florida sea turtle nesting beaches are poached by the hundreds, and every year there are arrests and prison sentences meted out.
I am so punch drunk from bad news blows, right now I'd believe any internet hoax that made humans look bad. If only more of the reports of bad news turned out to be hoaxes!
ReplyDeleteI found myself considering apologizing to my adult children for having brought them into this sick world. Somebody wake me up when it's over.
Arthurstone, about that email hoax website, there is an eel-mail reaction from the deep. Myrtle, The Olive Ridley Sea Turtle, says: "Keeps your hands off my children."
ReplyDeleteAnd the same goes for octopolyps (when I get around to making some).
Thanks for the link, Arthurstone. It appears that the controlled collection of the eggs has actually increased the survival rate for the hatchlings. Obviously such an approach is not appropriate in every circumstance but it appears to be working here.
ReplyDeleteNo one is more eager than me to think poorly of my fellow man but my experiences in Mexico and my friend's in Costa Rica show that the locals have bought into preservation and sustainability in very meaningful. We could learn from some of these folks.
ReplyDeleteArthurstone - "We could learn from some of these folks".
ReplyDeleteI don't recommend it. Sometimes the Hoax Slayers need to be fact checked. What I said above about the 36 hour moratorium, the continued poaching, and the superstitions that drive poaching are true.
Most important of all, what I said about turtle conservation efforts in the State of Florida are absolutely true. We have 4 species of sea turtles that nest on our beaches: Loggerheads, Leatherbacks, Green Turtles, and an occasional Hawksbill. All except the Loggerhead are highly endangered. Brevard County in Florida is the most important Loggerhead nesting ground in the Western hemisphere. Since I moved here 10 years ago (and became an active member in sea turtle conservation), Loggerhead nesting counts are 40% below what they were 10 years ago. This year, U.S. Fish & Wildlife announced plans to reclassify the Loggerhead from 'threatened' to 'endangered.'
What I said in the body of the above post:
"human interference in their life cycle is to blame, such as beach front development, light pollution on their nesting sites, injuries from boat strikes, drownings in nets (also known as 'by catch'), and unsustainable over harvesting of their eggs ..."
... is absolutely a true statement. Bottom line: Conservation efforts in the U.S. are failing to save the sea turtle.
For almost a decade, I have conducted early morning nest surveys, public talks, and night time guided beach tours (permitted by both the State of Florida and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services).
Speaking of superstitions which keep cultural practices alive despite their negative influence on the environment and the species which inhabit our planet let's not forget a particularly American contribution.
ReplyDeleteThe high-powered airplane, automobile, boat or motorcycle
For many American males a potent aphrodisiac.
Ooops! Don't let our beloved Captain see that word 'boat'
ReplyDelete"a particularly American contribution."
ReplyDeleteNot true in any sense I can determine. Most countries give little support to conservation and the world is full of people who put their own survival ahead of "tree hugging" or sympathy for the turtle. People kill gorilas because they're hungry, not because enjoy machinery. They destroy habitats to grow food, not because of some weird sublimated sexual urges one might, in all ridiculousness, impute to non-minimalist transportation modes.
The soccer mom next door uses ten times the fuel that My Corvette does and her commuter husband burns more than my boat does in the course of a year. It's a classic motes and beams situation.
I also live on an important turtle nesting beach, but one that's a federal preserve. It's got better security than the local banks, no lights, no poaching, no dogs on the beach. The reason so few hatchlings survive is that 99% are eaten by birds within minutes after crawling out of the sand. A large number of older turtles are being found entangled by commercial fishing gear and more found dead or moribund because of ingesting the plastic bags carelessly disposed of by people willing to pass the blame to sports cars and other things they don't like for reasons of their own.
For what it's worth the staunchest environmentalists I know and the most willing contributors to the preservation and conservation of wildlife are boaters, hunters and fishermen like me who take great pleasure in the natural world and great umbrage in having that love demeaned by bizarre and inapposite sexual references.
Aphrodisiac? Sounds like some personal issue here having nothing to do whatever with the decline in the turtle population and suggestive of Hutterism or some other base motivation. Might as well blame Hustler Magazine for clubbing baby seals if we're going to invoke sexual peculiarity to explain the destruction of the natural world on airplanes.
Ouch.
ReplyDeleteBut thanks. Hadn't run across Hutterism in a spell.
e.e.cummings
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ReplyDeleteHey, nothing personal, it's just my opinion that personal consumption isn't the ogre here. We waste energy resources on a huge scale and we hardly ever talk about replacing the need to use jet aircraft instead of trains. We don't talk about the fact that we have more shopping malls and big box stores than the rest of the world combined and how much energy they waste.
We throw away huge amounts of fuel transporting things by truck instead of by rail and we could save far more by changing things like that than by making us all drive econoboxes. Yet we talk about saving a Watt hour or two as we waste Gigawatts.
It's of a piece. I don't suggest 'personal consumption' is the entire issue by any means but I certainly believe our choice to pursue a highly mobile suburban lifestyle based on the automobile has an deleterious effect on the rest of the planet. To try and separate personal consumption as somehow distinct from the myriad of choices we have already made in planning, design, architecture, agriculture and transportation is almost beside the point.
ReplyDeleteThose big box stores didn't just fall out of the sky one day and land next to the interstate. We want them. We demand the 'right' to hop in the car, drive on the freeway and park for 'free' and then buy stuff for as low a price as possible. Likewise we insist on living miles from our places of work. We insist on moving to Las Vegas or Phoenix or LA. Places which are in no way sustainable.
Suggested reading:
Stan Cox, "Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer)"
And I don't disagree either, but cutting down rain forests, poisoning the oceans -- all that sort of thing is harder to correct. It's a very big picture and it seems to me that we concentrate on minor things and let the big ones go. If cars were suddenly banned in the US, I think it would be far too little and far too late.
ReplyDeleteAs to living in South Florida without AC? Fughettabout it!