By Roy Silva
Of the 11 species of turtle populations that are facing threats, five are found in Sri Lankan waters. The biggest threat is habitat issues where development and pollution clash with the environs frequented by turtle populations, said Shamen.
A recent assessment done by a turtle specialist group has evaluated the populations. They have studied the population behaviours and found that of 11 of those populations are threatened. It’s not about the individual species, it’s about the locations and species found in those places. So there are five of those 11 locations around our waters. (See map)
The report produced by IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group (MTSG) and supported by Conservation International (CI) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is the first comprehensive status assessment of all sea turtle populations globally.
The study, designed to provide a blueprint for conservation and research, evaluated the state of individual populations of sea turtles and determined the 11 most threatened populations as well as the 12 healthiest populations.
According to Shamen, five species have been found there. That does not mean that others are not threatened. Here they are doing a totally different thing to try and assess the viability of those populations. If no action is taken, those populations would disappear. They may be doing well in other areas. This has nothing to do with the overall threatened species category. This is about the populations and its long term survival, he said.
There are a number of threats posed on turtles. The first one is the threatened habitats. It’s well known that they have their food habits and they have to have it in their waters to breed well.
“Habitat too falls into two categories. One is that they come and lay their eggs in certain beaches. So the moment we develop the beaches for other purposes, such as tourism or infrastructure development for some major development projects, turtles lose that habitat to lay eggs. Turtles are said to be very interesting creatures and they are said to come back to the place they themselves got hatched to lay their eggs. It’s a very unique feature so when they don’t find that particular place, it could cause problems,” said Shamen.
The other factor is that the hatchlings are very light sensitive. They find the direction of the sea from light. When there are coastal developments with artificial lights, the hatchlings get disturbed and get attracted to the land side and that will be the end of them. Once hatched, the little ones have enough energy to survive for a couple of days. However, if they don’t make it to the sea within those couple of days, they would perish on land. That is one big problem threatening the turtles.
The next threat is the habitat for their food. Pollution is one of the causes. Turtles eat jelly fish and sometimes they also eat discarded polythene bags mistaking them to be jelly fish and die as a result. Pollution also is a cause for the depletion of food sources for the turtles.
There’s also the incidental catch. When fishermen lay their nets, turtles too get entangled in them. It’s not something done deliberately, but a by catch.
Again in certain areas turtles are killed for their flesh and are poached for their eggs. However, this segment had come down to a great extent during the recent past.
Where turtle shells are concerned, it is not longer an issue due to public awareness.
“Of these threats, the habitat issue is the one the authorities have to be very particular. After the 30-year strife, many are going in a big way trying to develop the beach areas and finally it could drive away these magnificent creatures from our waters. If these creatures of the sea go away in search of safer habitats, what is it that we are going to offer for those tourists who are interested in watching our turtles?” said the IUCN official.
We have to take into consideration two things: Laying locations and the hatchlings going back to the water.
Elaborating on the safe passage for hatchlings to go back to the sea, Shamen said that natural light is the main source for hatchlings to find the direction of the sea. Citing an example, IUCN Acting Country Director Shamen said that in India, when the Dhamra Port was being constructed by TATA Steel, they found that the area was frequented by turtles. The IUCN provided the necessary assistance to put up lights in the construction areas in collaboration with the Philips Company. The company developed a set of lights that did not disturb the turtle habitat.
Shamen said that the agreement between IUCN and the Dhamra Port Company Limited (DPCL), a joint venture of Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro, was an encouraging step forward in promoting corporate environmental responsibility. It acquired even greater importance given the proximity of the port in relation to one of the world’s most important mass-nesting beaches for Olive Ridley turtles. Given the Tata Group’s commitment to environmental preservation, IUCN had been of the view that engaging with DPCL, in an effort to integrate the highest of environmental standards into the port development and operations, was an exemplary model of contemporary conservation in action.
IUCN and DPCL, signed the agreement in 2007 with the aims of:
• Avoiding, minimizing and mitigating the impacts of Dhamra Port development on turtles and compensating or off-setting any residual impact that cannot be avoided or reasonably mitigated;
• Improving the project’s performance in other aspects of environment, e.g. terrestrial environment as affected by the access roads, railway lines and other secondary developments; and
• Contributing to raising national and global standards for environmentally responsible development of mega projects.
“Technology has developed so rapidly, solutions for this type of issues could also be found. The solutions are certainly costly, but it serves both purposes, both development and the conservation of these unique sea creatures, which are said to be in existence for the last 100 million years, much earlier than even the dinosaurs came into the picture,” said Shamen.
The publication done for the Wild Life Department with IUCN contributions titled ‘Strategy and Action Plan for Conservation of Marine Turtles in Sri Lanka’, that illustrates the main turtle habitats in Sri Lanka, gives a detailed account how the authorities and the private sector can help implement such programme to provide a win-win environment for all.
Another issue is that some of these developers of the beach areas are not aware of the unique behavioural patterns of these animals. They want to bring people to show our turtles, but will ultimately create a situation where the turtles would not come to the area.
“The recent study has clearly shown that those areas are threatened and some remedial action has to be taken to rectify the situation,” said Shamen.
With regard to numbers, the majority in Sri Lankan waters is the Olive Ridley followed by Hawksbill, Loggerhead, etc. Those are the three species found in those pockets. The other two are Leatherback and Greenturtle.
Expressing his views on the tourism aspect, Shamen said that there were quite a number that were involved in the hatchery business. There were also some who operated eco-tourism type initiatives.
“But in many cases, it has caused problems because they had been started without proper technical guidelines. Many, more than helping the turtle populations, had been keeping little turtles in tanks and show them to tourists for a fee. The hatchlings are released not when they should be released, but when they get a tourist to release them for a fee. For the majority, it has become a revenue generation venture rather than a conservation project,” observed Shamen.
Recently, the Department of Wildlife Department has prepared guidelines for hatcheries, which is a move in the right direction.
“Turtles could be seen frequently in the Kalpitiya, Hikkaduwa areas and especially close to coral reefs. In the Rekawa Ussangoda Kalametiya area too is a good location for turtle watching and that’s the only area declared as a turtle sanctuary. That came about as a result of IUCN discussion with the Wildlife Department and the Turtle Conservation Projects. That’s the first reptile sanctuary declared in Sri Lanka,” said Shamen P. Vidanage, Acting Country Representative of the (IUCN).
http://www.nation.lk/2011/10/16/eyefea6.htm
A recent assessment done by a turtle specialist group has evaluated the populations. They have studied the population behaviours and found that of 11 of those populations are threatened. It’s not about the individual species, it’s about the locations and species found in those places. So there are five of those 11 locations around our waters. (See map)
The report produced by IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group (MTSG) and supported by Conservation International (CI) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is the first comprehensive status assessment of all sea turtle populations globally.
The study, designed to provide a blueprint for conservation and research, evaluated the state of individual populations of sea turtles and determined the 11 most threatened populations as well as the 12 healthiest populations.
According to Shamen, five species have been found there. That does not mean that others are not threatened. Here they are doing a totally different thing to try and assess the viability of those populations. If no action is taken, those populations would disappear. They may be doing well in other areas. This has nothing to do with the overall threatened species category. This is about the populations and its long term survival, he said. There are a number of threats posed on turtles. The first one is the threatened habitats. It’s well known that they have their food habits and they have to have it in their waters to breed well.
“Habitat too falls into two categories. One is that they come and lay their eggs in certain beaches. So the moment we develop the beaches for other purposes, such as tourism or infrastructure development for some major development projects, turtles lose that habitat to lay eggs. Turtles are said to be very interesting creatures and they are said to come back to the place they themselves got hatched to lay their eggs. It’s a very unique feature so when they don’t find that particular place, it could cause problems,” said Shamen.
The other factor is that the hatchlings are very light sensitive. They find the direction of the sea from light. When there are coastal developments with artificial lights, the hatchlings get disturbed and get attracted to the land side and that will be the end of them. Once hatched, the little ones have enough energy to survive for a couple of days. However, if they don’t make it to the sea within those couple of days, they would perish on land. That is one big problem threatening the turtles.
The next threat is the habitat for their food. Pollution is one of the causes. Turtles eat jelly fish and sometimes they also eat discarded polythene bags mistaking them to be jelly fish and die as a result. Pollution also is a cause for the depletion of food sources for the turtles.
There’s also the incidental catch. When fishermen lay their nets, turtles too get entangled in them. It’s not something done deliberately, but a by catch.
Again in certain areas turtles are killed for their flesh and are poached for their eggs. However, this segment had come down to a great extent during the recent past.
Where turtle shells are concerned, it is not longer an issue due to public awareness.
“Of these threats, the habitat issue is the one the authorities have to be very particular. After the 30-year strife, many are going in a big way trying to develop the beach areas and finally it could drive away these magnificent creatures from our waters. If these creatures of the sea go away in search of safer habitats, what is it that we are going to offer for those tourists who are interested in watching our turtles?” said the IUCN official.
We have to take into consideration two things: Laying locations and the hatchlings going back to the water.
Elaborating on the safe passage for hatchlings to go back to the sea, Shamen said that natural light is the main source for hatchlings to find the direction of the sea. Citing an example, IUCN Acting Country Director Shamen said that in India, when the Dhamra Port was being constructed by TATA Steel, they found that the area was frequented by turtles. The IUCN provided the necessary assistance to put up lights in the construction areas in collaboration with the Philips Company. The company developed a set of lights that did not disturb the turtle habitat.
Shamen said that the agreement between IUCN and the Dhamra Port Company Limited (DPCL), a joint venture of Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro, was an encouraging step forward in promoting corporate environmental responsibility. It acquired even greater importance given the proximity of the port in relation to one of the world’s most important mass-nesting beaches for Olive Ridley turtles. Given the Tata Group’s commitment to environmental preservation, IUCN had been of the view that engaging with DPCL, in an effort to integrate the highest of environmental standards into the port development and operations, was an exemplary model of contemporary conservation in action.IUCN and DPCL, signed the agreement in 2007 with the aims of:
• Avoiding, minimizing and mitigating the impacts of Dhamra Port development on turtles and compensating or off-setting any residual impact that cannot be avoided or reasonably mitigated;
• Improving the project’s performance in other aspects of environment, e.g. terrestrial environment as affected by the access roads, railway lines and other secondary developments; and
• Contributing to raising national and global standards for environmentally responsible development of mega projects.
“Technology has developed so rapidly, solutions for this type of issues could also be found. The solutions are certainly costly, but it serves both purposes, both development and the conservation of these unique sea creatures, which are said to be in existence for the last 100 million years, much earlier than even the dinosaurs came into the picture,” said Shamen.
The publication done for the Wild Life Department with IUCN contributions titled ‘Strategy and Action Plan for Conservation of Marine Turtles in Sri Lanka’, that illustrates the main turtle habitats in Sri Lanka, gives a detailed account how the authorities and the private sector can help implement such programme to provide a win-win environment for all.
Another issue is that some of these developers of the beach areas are not aware of the unique behavioural patterns of these animals. They want to bring people to show our turtles, but will ultimately create a situation where the turtles would not come to the area.
“The recent study has clearly shown that those areas are threatened and some remedial action has to be taken to rectify the situation,” said Shamen.
With regard to numbers, the majority in Sri Lankan waters is the Olive Ridley followed by Hawksbill, Loggerhead, etc. Those are the three species found in those pockets. The other two are Leatherback and Greenturtle.
Expressing his views on the tourism aspect, Shamen said that there were quite a number that were involved in the hatchery business. There were also some who operated eco-tourism type initiatives.
“But in many cases, it has caused problems because they had been started without proper technical guidelines. Many, more than helping the turtle populations, had been keeping little turtles in tanks and show them to tourists for a fee. The hatchlings are released not when they should be released, but when they get a tourist to release them for a fee. For the majority, it has become a revenue generation venture rather than a conservation project,” observed Shamen.
Recently, the Department of Wildlife Department has prepared guidelines for hatcheries, which is a move in the right direction.
“Turtles could be seen frequently in the Kalpitiya, Hikkaduwa areas and especially close to coral reefs. In the Rekawa Ussangoda Kalametiya area too is a good location for turtle watching and that’s the only area declared as a turtle sanctuary. That came about as a result of IUCN discussion with the Wildlife Department and the Turtle Conservation Projects. That’s the first reptile sanctuary declared in Sri Lanka,” said Shamen P. Vidanage, Acting Country Representative of the (IUCN).
http://www.nation.lk/2011/10/16/eyefea6.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment