Battle against turtle poaching continues
Turtle nesting (file photo courtesy DoE)
(CNS): Following news that poachers made off with a wild turtle that had been nesting on Barkers Beach last week, the Department of Environment has confirmed that they managed to save another turtle on Seven Mile Beach that poachers had flipped on its back in the early hours of 11 July, thanks to the vigilance of the public. Facing a constant battle to protect the endangered marine animals during the nesting season, DoE enforcement officers and researchers are dependent on people phoning in sightings and suspected poaching.
In the 11 July case, the DoE said they suspected the turtle had been flipped over by the poachers who were coming back to pick it up, but fortunately it was seen by someone who called DoE Senior Enforcement Officer Mark Orr and the police.
Researcher Lucy Collyer said that when they got there, the poachers had already left the scene, having been told that the police had been called. The turtle had not yet nested and after they flipped her the right way up and took a few measurements, “we discovered that she was one of our previously tagged turtles that was first seen nesting in 2014 and has been recorded nesting again in 2016”, Collyer said.
After the ordeal the turtle made several attempts to dig before nesting the next night. She has since been seen nesting again and so Collyer believes she had not been adversely affected.
However, the DoE team remains very upset about the case of poaching in Barkers last week, when the suspects made off by crashing into a police car. “We joined the police in the search for the vehicle for the next few hours, but sadly we were unsuccessful in locating the suspects and retrieving the turtle,” Collyer said.
Category: Crime, Environment, Land Habitat, Science & Nature
Hundreds of sea turtles washing up dead on SWFL beaches; red tide likely killer https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.news-press.com/amp/827698002
Bin sayin it and will continue to put a bounty on the iguanas make the people that arnt working have a chance to make some money the right way and i can almost guarantee youll have less people taking shit out of the parks
its not rocket science
I’m so sorry the education system failed you.
We are now destroying our national symbol and destroying our beaches with crime DOE should get the quad runners not the useless Rcips Time has come now to reduce our population thus reducing the stress on our environment and infrastructure Cayman! Stop listening to these idiotic greedy politicians and their foreign driven agenda’s You want to stop this Cayman do it by not electing them to office. its not rocket science young people need to vote them out to save our environment now!
Don’t tell me what I can and cannot eat.
If you keep over eating it you won’t have any left to eat, this is why its regulated ya idiot.
endangered species!
As long as there is a turtle farm and the normalization of eating endangered animals this sort of thing will happen. If that is “culture” you ain’t got a culture.
Thats the prob all you foreigners come hear and want to impose your way of life and culture and what you think is the right thing. If it was up to me id send yall asses back ware ever yall come from
When in rome dome do as the romans do otherwise stay your infidel ass home
i eat turtle and thats my culture not burgers and fries
Which is exactly how they defend female genital mutilation in Ethiopia. #Caymunkind.
I wish your culture was educated. Reading and writing are essential to holding a decent job.
Good show insulting every single Caymanian in the country with that comment.
No, I have many many many Caymanian friends who can write and speak proper English. They do quite well here too. I just feel bad you don’t care.
11:09 am. Too funny. You sound so well educated yourself.
You can eat turtle if you want, just don’t poach turtles to do so. Simple enough???
Amen brother
Sad little islander not caught up with the world.
so sad just leave the turtles alone na man ugh!!!
While I am equally upset about those dirt bag poachers, I have to ask why the DoE is so mum when it comes to developers destroying the habit where the turtles lay???
Case in point, the large swath of land, and beach area, that has been altered by a developer. Nothing was said about this until AFTER the site was cleared and fill!!! Not a peep during the months of site work. Hmmmm.
Because they get away with it! Government is not hard on environmental issues if you haven’t noticed.
Hello? Any MLA’s care? Increased penalties? Thought not, too busy eating turtle from the beach. We see you.
Politicians are part of the problem. They think it’s their birth right to eat wild turtle and conch and lobster out of season!
Haha 2:00 p.m .i know one that don’t eat turtle , that’s the one for George town central . So sort out between the rest .oh by the way I’ll take his share ….oh boy.
Yes , like illegal gambling, some MLAs participate in both shameful criminal acts.
Then when the case finally gets to Court some “Visiting” Judge, without any local knowledge, will give a minimal sentence.
That is why mandatory minimum sentences MUST be built into laws. Largely the judiciary is out of touch with reality.
CRIME PAYS IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS.
Who buys this meat from poachers? Should be illegal to get it from anywhere but the turtle farm!
It IS illegal to buy poached turtle meat! The National Conservation Law is clear that anyone who has Turtle Meat from a poached turtle in their possession is committing a crime They are no less guilty than the poacher.
But who’s enforcing this and can prove its poached meat?
12.53pm- the answer is West Bayers, where the poachers come from. That shold be obvious.
What part of “endangered” don’t you people get?! Get over your damn turtle stew and find a new dish that doesn’t involve the possible instinction of the animal. What are you going to do when you can’t have your stew anymore? Start poaching parrots? Oh wait, you already do that too…. #caymanshame
Huh? Parrots were poached? And before someone comments with the typical “you must be new here” quip I’ll just say that I’m not.
If iguanas tasted like turtle two problems would be solved at once.
Clearly this is not about people being hungry.
You people??? Don’t tar the many with a brush reserved for the few braindead specimens of stupidity that do this.
I personally think these poachers are scum. Especially as the turtle was about to lay a clutch of eggs, ensuring the continuation of that particular species for another generation.
“You people”. Be very careful with that overt racism there mate.
Now, as for the rest of your comments:
(1) it’s extinction.
(2) I assure you that 99% of us whom consume said wildlife, purchase ours from the Turtle Farm.
(3) stop the folks in the Faroe Islands from hunting and eating whales. Traditional there too….Don’t forget trophy Hunters in the good ole U.S of A. Cecil the Lion anyone? How about Fox hunting? Didn’t even have the decency to eat that little fella…Just good sport Chap.
(4), where are the American Bison? Ahh, that’s right, eaten by the illegal immigrants, aka ‘founding fathers’. But they are coming back quite strong, thank goodness you got rid of those pesky natives whose traditional diet consisted of them…..
(5)- The green sea turtle (& hawksbill) has been a part of the Cayman diet for, oh, 100+ years, we haven’t managed to deplete them, but rather, made it illegal to take them for commercial gain, implemented a captive breeding program which meets the desire for those whom partake of it as well as increased their numbers in the wild by releasing yearlings. Don’t believe me? go diving off the north coast of G. Cayman or the south coast of C. Brac. Honestly, I see more now than in 1990 (when i first caught the scuba bug)
(6) Poaching ….. Parrots? For food? Not us mate….. Try again on that one.
And in closing, can we all quit with the #CaymanKind / #GoBackHome foolishness? We all have one thing in common…..We are all inhabiting this blue marble called earth, not some made up map covered with invisible lines designed to divide us.
So the gist of the post here is “the are groups of backwards people acting as badly as us, so we will keep on doing it.” #Caymankind.
“You people” was not racist. It was a comment aimed a turtle-munchers of all race and creed.
No, it was racist.
It was racist to turtle poachers.
I take my hat off to you sir,best damn comment I have ever read on cns, trust me bobo couldn’t have said it any better myself.
Okay Mr.Veg.you dont eat meat,thats fine.But what about the goat.cow.chicken etc.people eat meat.what are you trying to say?
As for u 12:28 u sound like one dem infidels that dont have no culture or respect for the ways of my people if you dont like our culture go back to ware u come from. Thats the problem with u kind caymanians we try to accommodate everyone
OMG! You can’t spell and it’s driving me nuts!
” The ways of your people” , tied up dogs and eating an endangered species… If that’s what you call “culture” , I think I’ll pass.
Good God!! Please understand the meaning of “infidel” before you use it again. I’m assuming you have a phone or computer. Look it up and absorb the meaning before you spew the word out again!!