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Death of an Ancient Mariner
The darkness changed to light as the huge door slid to the side to let in the morning sun. She stirred for a second, but since her flippers were tied together with ropes that pierced through her flesh, she couldn't move. She was too tired after 14 hours on her back to make much of an effort anymore. The weight of her body made it difficult for her to breath and her eyes were bulging from the increased blood pressure. She had been swimming north to get back to Tortuguero to lay her last clutch of eggs when they caught her. She had broken through the calm sea surface and looked up into the afternoon sky. As she got ready to dive again, she could feel something striking her at the rear part of her carapace. She tried to dive and swim away, but the harpoon was fastened in the bone and the barbs were digging in deeper as she struggled to escape, in vain.
The fishermen started pulling her in, slowly but surely. As she came closer to the boat, they grabbed her by the front flippers and hauled her into the boat. The fiberglass boat was really made for setting lobster nets in rough seas, but it worked very well for catching turtles in the calm late August seas. They put her next to three other females they had caught that afternoon, and after catching two more turtles, they headed back to their home port under the Caribbean sunset.
She was aware of things happening around her. People, perhaps ten or so, were walking around moving things and talking. She was too tired to care anymore as they took hold of the rope and dragged her to the open space in the middle of the slaughterhouse. WHACK!! The sound echoed between the concrete walls. The pain was instantaneous and nothing but darkness followed, no more light, no more pain. An end to perhaps forty or more years of cruising through the oceans. From the first day she crawled down the beach as a hatchling, through years of drifting with the currents, swimming through the shallow coastal waters, feeding in the sea grass beds, to her return journey to her natal beach, and now nothing. The death of an ancient mariner.
The man hit her two or three more times with the flat side of the axe to be sure that she wouldn't jerk her flippers when they cut her up. He then proceeded to chop off her flippers with the axe. They were sturdy and it took several hits before he severed them from the body. Another man continued the work, he cut around the edge of the carapace and removed the plastron from the rest of the body. The heart was still beating as he cut out the calipee, the meat, the ovaries, and removed the eggs which were ready to be laid. In less than a couple of minutes, all that remained were pieces of meat that were being pushed around in carts along the roads to be sold to those who like to cook and eat the meat of green turtles.
Such is a morning in a green turtle processing plant, or slaughterhouse as some call it, and such is the fate that is shared by thousands of green turtles in the Caribbean each year. Don't be fooled by the graphic and emotional descriptions, I'm not against fishermen who sustainably fish turtles in order to make a living. As a matter of fact I'm not against fishermen at all. I sympathize with those who are trying to feed their families, but I also sympathize with the hundreds of people who use turtles sustainably through tourism. CCC is currently working with the fishermen and the owner of a legal slaughterhouse in Limon, where the turtle described above was slaughtered, to find a solution to the conflict between sea turtle consumers and conservationists.
CCC opposes any green turtle fishery that is not based on scientific studies, a fishery that is not regulated and controlled and which far exceeds the legal take quotas. Currently, Costa Rica allows a fishery of 1,800 green turtles per year, but all indications are that the quota is exceeded. By how much one can only guess, but three or four times would probably be a conservative estimate.
In Tortuguero, green turtles are sustainably used through tourism, and the sustainable use brings in far more money than does the turtle fishery in Limon. CCC is currently working with Costa Rican ministries, legislators and hopefully also fishermen, in order to achieve a sustainable use of sea turtles in Costa Rica and in the region.
This season we visited the legal slaughterhouse to collect information about the turtles that were awaiting slaughter. However, our other purpose was to speak to those involved in the fishery in an attempt to understand their perception of the issue, and to find ways in which our interests can be combined and the turtle populations maintained. We also wanted to talk to the fishermen about the biology of sea turtles and the constraints this places on exploitation. Although some of the fishermen were reluctant to speak or even look at us, others willingly shared their ideas and knowledge. Apart from breaking the slaughterhouse scale while weighing 30 female turtles, the trip went well. The owner of the slaughterhouse "Don Ming" was interested in hearing what we had to say. Yesterday he phoned me and asked about the possibility of visiting Tortuguero to learn more about turtles and their sustainable use through tourism.
It may only be a start, but I believe that showing the will to talk to those on the other side of the conflict is an important first step. Cooperation is always better than confrontation.
I'll let you know in future notes about the progress that is being made in our efforts to conserve the ancient mariners and to ensure their kind a future with fewer hazards as the travel through the depths and shallows of the sea.
Pura vida,
Sebastian Troëng
Research Coordinator
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