Tuesdays with Turtles – Outback Edition

Byoliveridley

flatback-kp.jpgWell, since this blog gratuitously takes its name from a sea turtle, it’s only fair that there needs to be a turtle post at least once a week! Why Tuesday? Because it alliterates. Why not Thursday? Because apparently, Tuesday’s the day that you do things with other things, ask Morrie.

I confess to knowing very little about the flatback. It’s only found around Australia and is listed as threatened. This news item caught my attention (for obvious reasons)

Turtles may fall victim to Australian gas project – International Herald Tribune

The peak nesting season is just drawing to a close for the flatbacks, a threatened species of sea turtle found only in Australia, when thousands of palm-sized hatchlings emerge from eggs buried under the sand and race to the sea. Every second counts: Between them and the ocean lies an army of hungry predators: lizards, dogs, foxes and gulls. Most of the turtles will never taste saltwater.

Development is another threat. Until now, the flatbacks could find some respite off the coast west of here, on Barrow Island, one of the country’s oldest nature reserves. But now environmentalists say that Barrow’s flatbacks may be among the victims of a plan by the oil giant Chevron to use Barrow Island for a roughly $8.6 billion project meant to supply natural gas to Japan and other energy-hungry nations.

“The environment is being made to pay for a poor business development model,” said Chris Tallentire, director of the Conservation Council of Western Australia in Perth.

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    Byoliveridley

    Great Turtle Race

    Follow eleven turtles as they sprint from Costa Rica to near the Galapagos. Each of them has a corporate sponsor, and at 20 miles an hour, they will get there in a couple of weeks! I think Billie’s going to win, but the leatherback turtle is in bad shape, endangered due to poaching, adult mortality and habitat loss. They may be gone very soon.

    Here’s the flickr page for the race, some beautiful pictures already.

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    Tuesdays with Turtles – Wednesday Hook Edition

    Byoliveridley

    WWF – Fishing Technology That’s Letting Turtles Off the Hook –

    Turns out that a small change in hook design can save a lot of turtles from getting caught in longline hooks. But the story’s not really about the shape of the hook. I’ve written about this before. The issue is rarely one of technology. The solutions have been developed and exist because a lot of work has gone into developing technological solutions. Implementation on the ground (or sea!) has lagged because it is much harder to effect change where it counts when you attempt to impose technology in a top-down fashion. Small scale fishers (new english here, to avoid the whole fishermen/fisherwoman/fisherperson nonsense, take out the gender specific suffix to every occupation describing verb! – Try it, it’s not weldman, or plumbwoman!) are in a world of hurt with declining fish stocks and widespread fisheries piracy by the so called “developed world”. Without developing and implementing the solution with the full participation of the people who have the most potential to be affected, the change will not be successful.

    What did the WWF do differently this time?

    Together with fishermen we are building a culture for sustainable fishing practices that will guarantee fish stocks in the long term

    They emphasized the people, not the solution. And the results were great, 90% reduction in turtle catch, >95% of the turtles caught were released safely, and the fish yields were not affected. Everyone wins, right?

    Good stuff. Those turtles are still endangered and we’ll run out of wild edible fish in 50 years, but hey, more like this and there’s a bit of hope.

  • Tuesdays with Turtles – Triumphant Return

    Byoliveridley

    So, blogging has been light this summer as Olive Ridley’s partner made her way to Canada and is settling in. Also, it is summer in BC and beautiful as hell, so the prospect of sitting down and typing on a computer with brains that are only half working, well, ain’t so hot! Also, Canada is just a much calmer place than the U.S. As I looked back at my many posts, most of them are bitter fulminations against American politics or the various shenanigans of the Emperor. Anyway, I am not under his rule any more, and while he’s gutting the Endangered Species Act as we speak, he will be history soon.

    While Canadian policy debates are equally interesting, they are generally civil in comparison, except the occasional kerfluffle where old white men want their female opponents to go back to making tea, charming…

    Anyway, I felt the blogging itch again and as always, it’s nice to get back with a story about turtles.

    Researchers say they have figured out why sea turtles that normally feed and breed in shallow water or on land will, very rarely, go deep sea diving: the reptiles are on reconnaissance.

    Sea Turtles Dive to Depths for Reconnaissance : Discovery News

    Leatherbacks have amazing diving capabilities and can get up to a kilometre below the surface. Why? for food, of course! More precisely, the promise of future food. Turns out that jellyfish (or jellyfish like animals) hang out in the deep during day time and surface at night. Leatherbacks go looking for them during the daytime down in the deeps so they can get them on the surface for dinner. It’s akin to you taking a leisurely walk around downtown looking for the perfect dinner spot.

    Interesting. As always, very fascinating and sexy creatures, and critically endangered.

    Expect more regularly scheduled blogging just in time for the late summer sweeps!

  • Tuesdays with Turtles – Poaching in Mexico

    Byoliveridley

    This article brings up some interesting information about sea turtle poaching in Mexico, including the fact that sea turtle eggs are considered aphrodisiacal in certain cultures…

    Real Men Don’t Eat Turtle Eggs : To Fight Turtle Poaching, Campaigners Hit Below the Belt (By C.J. Bahnsen)

    But there have been recent gains. WiLDCOAST, a small conservation organization also co-founded by Nichols, has implemented a media campaign. It started in 2005, when Argentine singer and Playboy model Dorismar attracted controversial attention by appearing in television and poster PSAs, hitting Mexican men—who eat turtle eggs mistakenly believing they are aphrodisiacs—below the belt. The message above a salacious Dorismar reads: “My man doesn’t need to eat turtle eggs; because he knows they don’t make him more potent.” The bold campaign reached a global audience of 300 million and resulted in a decrease in consumption of sea turtle eggs.

    Well, the unfortunate thing about aphrodisiacs is that if you believe, it works! So, I guess a Playboy model telling you that sea turtles eggs are baloney may work. They author does say there was a decrease in consumption, but presumably, it is not quite that easy to ascribe causation relationships to particular parts of a campaign!

    Other highlights…

    Turtle smuggling is thought to be a proving ground, a gateway into drug trafficking. Mexico is the principal transit country for 70 to 90 percent of cocaine entering the U.S., and the largest outside source of
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    This, I did not know.

    Grupo Tortuguero continues its David-vs.-Goliath efforts to co-opt fishermen and volunteers from Baja’s fishing communities to monitor, tag and protect sea turtles. The group has dozens of sites along the peninsula and all have drug issues, ranging from trafficking to addiction. “I’ve interacted with fishers who were not ‘poachers,’ but were poaching for money to feed their habit,” says Nichols

    The article is interesting because it points out the similarities between sea turtle smuggling and drug smuggling, the use of young women, the co-opting of users to become dealers, the bribery of local officials, the organization to avoid capture, etc. Hmm…

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    Tuesdays with Turtles – Travel Edition

    Byoliveridley

    sm_mapping.jpgIt’s travel all the time for sea turtles. Of course, the great turtle race is finally on, and windy’s in the lead, my pick billie’s in second place, a mere 30 miles behind. There’s a new turtle in the race, Colbertia, named in honor of Stephen Colbert, in third place.

    Anything that gets turtles some attention is good.

    But this is only a 500 mile sprint. PBS’ nature series had a one hour documentary on an 8000 mile, one plus year journey of a loggerhead turtle from her juvenile feeding grounds in Mexico to her adult breeding ground in Japan. It’s great to spend an hour at that close proximity to a turtle. But to me, the other animals, the dolphin pods, the giant fish swarms, the hammerhead sharks, the other sharks, the jelly fish, those little fish that eat parasites off the turtles and sharks kinda stole the show. There is something about thousands of animals of the same species doing something in concert. 

    Anyway, nothing more to say, except that 8000 miles is a long way at a mile an hour. I don’t think any of us can appreciate the mindfulness and sense of purpose (do turtles have these qualities, or do they just keep on chuggin’?), not to mention the huge amount of luck it takes to get it done.