Sea Turtles in Distress: A Recipe for Extinction

by Peter Fugazzoto

It begins with the blue waters of the sea. Then a touch of black breaks the surface, and then, slipping in with the waves, countless olive ridley sea turtles appear. First dozens, then hundreds, then thousands, then hundreds of thousands return to the beach where they were born, dig nests, and lay eggs in the sand. This is the dream of a magical place in India called Orissa, home to the largest nesting of olive ridley sea turtles in the world.

But for two years in a row, the mass nesting of sea turtles did not occur. Instead of watching turtles lay eggs in the sand, conservationists counted dead turtles: almost 15,000 dead sea turtles last year, 40,000 over the past five years. And the number on the beach is only a fraction of the number of sea turtles that are killed, presumably by shrimp trawlers and gill netters, but never wash ashore.

Sea turtles breathe air, holding their breath for up to eight hours. When sea turtles are caught up in the huge funnel-shaped shrimp nets, they panic, struggling for air. Eventually, unable to free themselves from the nets, they drown.

Fortunately, a simple, inexpensive device can help prevent this tragedy. A turtle excluder device (TED) is a metal grid that guides sea turtles out an escape flap while shrimp pass between the bars and into the back of the net. TEDs are more than 97 percent effective. For the estimated 150,000 sea turtles caught in shrimp trawl nets every year, TEDs are a practical method of saving lives. They also protect local fishery stocks by permitting bycatch, or nontargeted fish, to escape as well.

While the evidence for the Orissa massacre points to destructive fishing practices, such as shrimp trawling and gill netting, the government is slow to move. Indian activists call for increased enforcement of a coastal fishing ban, the mandatory use of TEDs, and immediate action to address the impacts of gill netting.

The decline of the sea turtles
All seven species of sea turtles have been listed as endangered, threatened, or vulnerable by the US Endangered Species Act, the IUCN Red List, and international treaties. Luxury hotels destroy natal nesting beaches. Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, a favorite food, and choke to death. Adult sea turtles have been hunted for their meat and their shells, to make eyeglass frames, combs, and cigarette lighters But perhaps the greatest threats to sea turtles are the increasing consumption of seafood and unsustainable commercial fishing methods. Drift nets may be responsible for hundreds of thousands of sea turtle deaths every year. Longline fleets, which set up to 10 billion hooks in the ocean every year for swordfish and tuna, kill countless numbers of sea turtles. And in 1990, the US National Academy of Sciences concluded that in US waters, more sea turtles die from shrimp trawling than from all other human causes combined.

While the US has been a notable laggard in many areas of environmental protection, it took the lead in ensuring that shrimp trawl vessels use TEDs. The US also requires that nations who wish to import wild-caught shrimp into the US develop policies requiring TED use. Due to this economic incentive, 16 other nations have implemented TED laws. Unfortunately, India has refused to put a national TED law in place, and the turtles pay the price.

The tragedy at Orissa
Five of the seven species of endangered sea turtles live in Indian waters. These species are the olive ridley, green, hawksbill, leatherback, and loggerhead. The coast of Orissa is the most important sea turtle nesting area in India, and possibly the most important olive ridley nesting site in the world. It is estimated that up to 1 million sea turtles have nested here during a single season.

There are several major nesting beaches along the coast of Orissa, including Gahirmatha, Ganjam, Konark-Balukhand, and the Devi Coast. Historically, Gahirmatha is the world's largest nesting site for olive ridley sea turtles. On this 22-mile long stretch of beach, as many as 690,000 turtles have nested in one year.

Under the 1972 Wildlife Protection Act, sea turtles, as well as many other species, are protected from capture, destruction or trade. Because of the importance of Gahirmatha, a marine sanctuary was established in 1997. However, even the best laws, if not adequately enforced, cannot protect endangered animals.

In two consecutive seasons (1996-97 and 1997-98), mass nestings failed in Orissa. At Ganjam, only 9,000 turtles nested in the 1997-98 season, a fraction of the 200,000 there previously. In Gahirmatha, the turtles simply disappeared. Activists blame the shrimp trawl boats, which regularly ply the waters of the sanctuary despite the ban. Conservationists found as many as 16 turtles in a single trawl net. Most turtles found on the beach were dead, drowned in the nets.

Bringing the turtles back
The nesting failures raised alarm in India and internationally. Indian and US NGOs joined forces in December with the central and state governments to launch Operation Kachhapa, whose purpose was to lay groundwork to protect the turtles and to enforce the existing ban on near-shore trawling. The NGOs and government agencies began to tackle the problem of enforcement. As of April, fifty-one trawlers and gill netters had been seized by authorities for illegal fishing.

This concerted effort may have played a role in the return of the mass nesting. Almost 300,000 sea turtles nested at Gahirmatha. Still, the mass nesting at Rishikulya, historically as large as 200,000 turtles per year, has not yet recovered. And other turtle rookeries have no protection. Alarming numbers of sea turtles still wash up dead on the shores of Orissa. This year alone, some 10,000 have been counted - and the evidence still points to the trawlers.

Over the past five years, 40,000 dead olive ridley sea turtles have been counted by a single conservationist, Bivash Pandav, from the Wildlife Institute of India. Last year alone more than 13,000 dead turtles were counted. This figure does not account for drowned sea turtles that don't wash ashore, which some studies suggest may be 80 percent of those that drown. If this is the case in India, as many as 50,000 sea turtles could have been killed by shrimp trawlers already this year, and as many as 200,000 over the past five years.

Even with all this carnage, there is still no legislation. In many ways, the reaction of the Indian government has been denial. In 1998, the Minister of Fisheries blamed the mass deaths on pollution and physical exhaustion from migration.

While government action can help prevent sea turtle deaths, any long-term solution must involve communities in the planning and implementation of turtle conservation activities. One Costa Rican community legally harvests sea turtle eggs in exchange for protecting the beach from poachers, and some US shrimpers participate in a certification program, ensuring proper use of TEDs in exchange for the use of an ecolabel on their products.

Global shrimp
Shrimp have become an important part of India's exports in an effort to service debt. But an economy based on the demand of the voracious North has serious consequences not only for the environment, but also for people. Fish exports have grown over the years in India, as fish consumption per capita declines; the protein of the South is feeding the North. Shrimp trawling accounts for 35 percent of total global bycatch, and the FAO reports 90 percent of fish caught in India is discarded. "Free trade" proponents, like the World Trade Organization (WTO), have also allowed the massacre of the sea turtles to continue in India. India challenged the US Endangered Species Act's requirement that nations exporting shrimp to the US have TED laws or equivalent measures, claiming that it was an unfair barrier to trade. The WTO, after a series of closed-door meetings and despite the pleas of the world's most prominent sea turtle biologists, decided that the US law was in violation of WTO rules. The US could now be faced with the prospect of changing a provision of the Endangered Species Act or paying financial reparations to nations like India that continue to kill sea turtles.

What you can do:
Write the Indian Prime Minister and politely request that a national Turtle Excluder Device law immediately be put in place in order to protect the turtles. Prime Minister, c/o Embassy of India, 2107 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008, e-mail: <amb-washington@indiagov.org>. Write Al Gore and demand that the US withdraw from the WTO, since every time there is a conflict between trade and the environment, the environment loses. Vice President Al Gore, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20230, e-mail: <vicepresident@whitehouse.gov>. For more information on this issue and the global protection of sea turtles, please see <http://www.seaturtles.org>.