Turtle found dead on Earth Day
Turtle found dead on Earth Day
(CNS): The Department of Environment has reported that a juvenile green sea turtle was found dead on Earth Day, entangled in fishing line near the North Sound’s Duck Pond Cay. The DoE has warned the fishing community many times about the dangers of discarded fishing line and urged people to dispose of it properly. Fishing line, which is nearly invisible underwater and takes more than 600 years to degrade, poses one of the most severe threats to juvenile turtles in the Cayman Islands as well as other marine wildlife and birds.
The bad news comes just as this year’s turtle breeding season gets underway, with the first nest found just a few days ago on a south coast beach in Grand Cayman.
Despite the concerted and successful efforts in Cayman to protect wild turtles, their numbers are still very low and they continue to face a variety of threats, such as poaching and bright lights on the beach that disorient baby turtles after they hatch.
During the department’s own Earth Day clean-up, conservation officers Chadd Bush and Casey Keller filled more than 10 garbage bags from the shore area near Salt Creek, including a large net that would have posed a serious danger to turtles and other marine life.
Since it installed around 25 fishing line recycling bins across the Cayman Islands, the DoE has collected and recycled more than 300lbs of old line and is urging people to use them rather than regular rubbish bins because sending the line to the dump can still pose a problem for birds and other animals.
For more information about safely disposing fishing line and rescuing marine life from it see the DoE guidelines here.
For more information about turtle friendly lighting, visit the DoE site here.
DoE Conservation Officers Chadd Bush and Casey Keller took an #EarthDay break from their patrols over the long weekend…
Posted by Cayman Islands Department of Environment on Monday, 22 April 2019
Category: Marine Environment, Science & Nature
Revert back to common sense , disrespect mother nature and she will hit back ten fold !
I like cats
Who is this idiot who posts these stupid ” I like cats” posts. I wish he/she would stop.
regarding earth day can we please remove the flip-flop tree in southsound….?
in what wonderland universe does nailing bits of rubber/plastic into a living tree make any sense what so ever?
All of the invasive casuarinas should be removed.
Sorry, I may be ignorant about this, but why is the tree bad?
Because it’s furrin
shallow root system so wash out during storms. The needles keep other plants from growing around them so you end up with a monoculture stand of casurinas. Leading to greater erosion problems when there is a storm.
Agree, then replant concrete trees in their place since everything else is going that way.
This kind of thing is a disgrace caused all by
lack of knowledge . The things that causes so much fishing to be left
in the water is people who don’t know how to fish, but try
to do it , and trolling into 10ft of water with 200ft line out and something happens and the line hook gets snagged on the bottom
and first thing comes to mind is cut the line .
Remember when something like that happens , turn the boat around and retrieve your line and stop and go in the water and clear the hook . Always check your fishing lines for chaffing spots in your line
so that your line don’t break when you hook that big fish .
And don’t throw your old fishing line NOWHERE IN THE OCEANM.
Instead, throw it somewhere in the ocean!
Shame on whoever continues with this asinine behaviour. We need to protect what little there is left to Cayman now
Landowners should be fined for derelicting any of their beach front property for months and years (ie. leaving nets and garbage on shorelines). DART – one of the most prolific offenders in our islands, has no shortage of employees, equipment, and capital to ensure their expanding property portfolio is clean. The DoE and various beach volunteer groups shouldn’t be cleaning these private areas for DART!!! These are not crown public lands anymore. DART cannot have it both ways – if they can’t manage their private property portfolio, notice should be served, after which, it should be forfeited back to the crown.
It’s you that can’t have it both ways. That trash was below the high water mark by the looks of it. Want to sell that too like you sold off everything else?
DARTBOT comment doing what they are paid to do – disparage all negative comments about ĎART.
DARTBOTS sole purpose is a DART paid Public Relations organisation is to defend DART in an attempt to give the impression that ALL THINGS DART ARE PERFECT.
Some of us know about the greed and corruption infecting Cayman.
By your logic Queen Elizabeth herself should have cleaned this up. Should we give her a call?
12:52pm I agree with you 100% , but remember whone you said is the biggest and most efficient to keep the beach properties clean , and who would have to make the Laws/Rules ,
So I like your suggestions but you have your work cut out for you if you want it to come true .
A ridiculous comment. You folks keep sayin thats public property. Which way do you want it?
Shame of you scummy fishermen. All you do is pillage the sea for personal gain. I have many fishermen in my family and they treat the sea and sea life with respect.