Sea Turtle Recovery Action Plan for Barbados - WIDECAST

Barbados Sea Turtles …
I. INTRODUCTION
Barbados (59 o 35'W, 13 o 10'N) is the most easterly island in the Lesser Antilles (Map 1).
Historical evidence suggests that turtles may never have been particularly common around
Barbados. Turtle bones, dating back to about 1000 AD, have been found at only one of five
Amerindian sites excavated in the country. By contrast, the bones of turtles are commonly found
at Amerindian sites of a similar period in Antigua, as well as in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Ligon (1673), in an account of the society, economy, and natural history of Barbados recorded
during a stay between 1647 and 1650, mentions an abundance of green turtles (Chelonia mydas)
in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. A lover of turtle meat, he was disappointed that green
turtles were so few around Barbados, and moreover that those present were neither "fat nor
kindly". Perhaps the green turtles he encountered were immature, or perhaps he was misidentifying
hawksbills as immature green turtles.
Fresh green turtle meat was widely eaten in the Caribbean, and calipee especially was
considered a delicacy in the Leeward Islands, at the time Ligon was writing. Yet the only turtle
meat that was available in Barbados was pickled turtle meat imported from the Leeward islands.
Ligon (1673) postulated that the lack of green turtles reflected the fact that there were no sandy
beaches for turtles to nest on in Barbados. This is somewhat surprising, since one of the primary
attractions of Barbados as a present day tourist destination is its white sandy beaches. Nearly
two centuries later, Schomburgk (1848) included three species of sea turtle in the vertebrate
fauna of Barbados: the hawksbill, green, and loggerhead sea turtles, archaically known as Caretta
imbricata, Caretta esculenta, and Caretta cephalo, respectively. He made no mention of the
distribution or abundance of these species, nor whether they nested on the island.
Today, hawksbills and an occasional leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) are the only
species of sea turtle known to nest in Barbados. Hawksbills, loggerheads, and green turtles are
all harvested (additional detail is provided in section 3.3). Hawksbills are primarily caught with
the use of nets set between the outer edges of fringing reefs and the bank reef (1000 m offshore)
off the west and south coasts. Juvenile green turtles are caught in similar nets set a few hundred
yards from shore on the east coast. Adult greens and loggerheads are speared opportunistically
by offshore pelagic fishermen whilst they wait for gill nets to fill. The meat, eggs, and shells of
hawksbills are used, as well as (but more rarely) the meat and shells of green turtles, the meat of
loggerheads, and the eggs of leatherbacks -- despite the fact that egg harvest is illegal at all times
(section 4.21). Turtle shell articles such as jewelry and combs are on sale in numerous
tourist-orientated shops. Although present legislation prohibits the possession of any turtle under
30 lbs (13.6 kg), preserved and mounted juvenile hawksbills (generally