Sea Turtle Recovery Action Plan for Barbados - WIDECAST
Sea Turtle Recovery Action Plan for Barbados - WIDECAST
Sea Turtle Recovery Action Plan for Barbados - WIDECAST
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4.293 Immature and adult turtles<br />
<strong>Barbados</strong> <strong>Sea</strong> <strong>Turtle</strong>s …<br />
Monitoring populations of juvenile turtles and non-nesting adults is difficult, yet some<br />
estimation of relative abundance over time is necessary in order to evaluate the success of<br />
conservation measures. Dive operators have expressed interest in collaborating with the tagging<br />
and monitoring of turtles seen regularly at their dive sites. Such cooperation is welcome and is<br />
encouraged. To date, Bellairs Research Institute has tagged 13 adult hawksbills, 40 juvenile<br />
hawksbills, 15 juvenile green turtles, and two juvenile loggerheads. Adults are tagged with<br />
Titanium tags marked "Bellairs, <strong>Barbados</strong>, Reward". Sub-adults are tagged with monel tags<br />
inscribed with a University of Florida, Gainesville, address; tags were supplied by Dr. Karen A.<br />
Bjorndal, Director of the Archie Carr Center <strong>for</strong> <strong>Sea</strong> <strong>Turtle</strong> Research.<br />
One tagged adult female hawksbill re-nested two years after she had been tagged, and<br />
within a few hundred metres of the original nest spot. Several tags have been returned from<br />
turtles netted or speared by <strong>Barbados</strong> fishermen. One loggerhead tagged and released in<br />
<strong>Barbados</strong> was recaptured two years later in southwest France and was later released unharmed.<br />
This animal was one of two flown to <strong>Barbados</strong> after they stranded on a beach in Cornwall, U.K.<br />
No leatherbacks have been tagged.<br />
Knowledge of immature and adult turtle offshore behaviour and habitat use could be<br />
furthered by the initiation of ultra-sonic or VHF-radio tracking of tagged animals. Ultra-sonic<br />
tags are self-identifying, transmitting unique aural codes that can be heard on the same frequency<br />
and thus allowing several animals to be tracked simultaneously. Ultra-sonic tags were used with<br />
success to track the inter-nesting movements of hawksbills nesting on Buck Island off the north<br />
coast of St. Croix, U. S. Virgin Islands, in 1991. In the same study, even greater success was<br />
realized using VHF radio transmitters (Scott Eckert, Hubbs-<strong>Sea</strong> World Research Inst., pers.<br />
comm.). A programme using either or both of these techniques is recommended <strong>for</strong> <strong>Barbados</strong>.<br />
4.3 Encourage and Support International Legislation<br />
4.31 CITES<br />
If the harvest of all sea turtles is prohibited by national legislation (as is currently under<br />
consideration, see section 4.23), persons catching turtles or offering turtle products <strong>for</strong> sale can<br />
be prosecuted. In support of these improvements in national legislation, it will be important to<br />
terminate all international sea turtle shell and product trade. The problems created by trade are<br />
illustrated by the fact that while there was a ban on sea egg (Tripnuestes ventricosus) harvest in<br />
<strong>Barbados</strong>, some supermarkets continued to import sea egg products from Grenada, making it<br />
difficult to en<strong>for</strong>ce the ban. One way to coordinate trade restrictions on sea turtle products is <strong>for</strong><br />
<strong>Barbados</strong> to join the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna<br />
and Flora (CITES), a powerful and effective global trade treaty that has been ratified by 112<br />
countries (WWF, 1992). Discussion is ongoing between the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and<br />
Fisheries, the Ministry of Trade and Commerce, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on acceding<br />
to this Convention. It is the recommendation of this <strong>Recovery</strong> <strong>Action</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> that <strong>Barbados</strong> make<br />
accession to CITES a high priority. Japanese Customs statistics indicate that nearly 2,000<br />
hawksbill turtles have been killed <strong>for</strong> export from <strong>Barbados</strong> to Japan since 1970 (section 3.3).<br />
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