Turtle stocks can sustain sale, says farm
(CNS): The Cayman Turtle Farm has announced that it is holding holiday-season sale on turtle stew and menavelin. Tim Adam, managing director of the farm said that after a review of production it was believed that an increase in supplies could be sustained, if only temporarily for the season. Although it is anticipated prices will go back up in the New Year the turtle boss said this sale would allow food vendors to offer the traditional Caymanian dish on menus for Pirate’s Week, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year gatherings. Adam said the stocks still had to be managed but the farm appreciated the need to try and reduce prices given the time of year.
“We understand the importance and sentimental attractions of Caymanian culinary traditions, particularly during Pirate’s Week and the holidays, which bear an even greater traditional significance,” said Adam. “We are happy to offer the community the chance to maintain — and remind others of — their uniquely Caymanian identity and all the pleasures and cultural expressions that implies.”
He explained that the Turtle Farm had reviewed its production programme and concluding that increased supplies could be sustained, if only temporarily, and that soon after the New Year, prices were likely to return to higher levels.
“We still need to manage consumption of this traditional product, in order to keep supplies at a sustainable level. By and large, the community has supported us, and people seem to understand and accept the need for a programme of careful maintenance and conservation,” Adam revealed.
The new temporary prices are $10 per pound for stewing meat and $8 per pound for menavelin and it is being sold in five-pound lots. Prices of turtle meet were increased in February when the cost of turtle stew went from its years-long level of $5.40 per pound to $16, and menavelin from $4 to $12 as part of efforts to reduce consumption and enable replenishment of stocks at the Turtle Farm.
Category: Science and Nature
Menavelin=yuckk. Why not go scape up some road kill agouti.
If they have been releasing 30000 into the wild why are there only 40 nesting turtles on the island. Probably should release them on a beach when they are first born so they can imprint, instead of releasing them a year or two later out of the tanks. Those tanks at the turtle farm must be hard for them to climb into when they come back to lay. It wouldn’t matter how many little ones got eaten the first day off the beach since none of them are coming back the way it is going now.
Leave the turtles alone!
three words for you:
ENDANGERED ISN’T EDIBLE.
Survey says! WRONG!
They are endangered because they are very much edible.
I can’t believe people would actually thumbs down this comment. Let’s all go help ourselves to some Bengel Tiger and Great Panda next. It’s disgusting to think a national dish is an endangered species. And I don’t care if it’s farmed or not, it doesn’t make it right. It’s hard to prosecute the wild caught turtle now, because the farm is in business. The demand needs to end, because the supply cannot keep up.
I hope that is a photo of turtle soup in progress and not turtle stew! Don’t know anyone who cooks stew in water.
And Cultcha Vultcha, consumption of this amphibian was tradition long before it was endangered, hence the cultural expression.
When the facts change, people and attitudes should change too, particularly if a people feel a cultural responsibility to managing a resource. It is a fact that these are endangered animals and also well documented that they are NOT reproducing at the Turtle farm. Not only is their harvest allowed to continue, but the government is going to reduce the price to make their consumption more affordable to the least enlightened! How can that be okay with everybody?
and hence why it is endangered now
It used to Cayman culture to eat the Caiman’s here. But that is no longer part of Cayman culture.
Now for bonus points can any one tell me why eating the Cayman caiman is no longer part of Cayman culture?
they are reptiles not amphibians, for pete’s sake.
Eating an endangered animal = cultural expression. How lame must that "culture" be. It ranks along with Japan’s "scientific experiments" on whales – they call that a cultural activity too.
What culture do you have? Burgers ad fries? Way to go.
When we are down to the last few cows on earth you might have a point.
GRANNY: Gracie ye nuh hear det turtle meat going down fe Christmas & New Year too. Hurry go get couple a pound fe mi foe it done.
GRACIE: But granny, ah thought ah had hear Stricknine say ye had order ye turtle meat from "HALF & HALF" fe ye Christmas.
GRANNY: Child tell me something, wha ah going buy it from HALF & HALF fa, when ah can get the real thing from Turtle Farm.
GRACIE: Well granny wha ye going do wid de one ye already order.
GRANNY: Child why ye don listen te wha dey say. "Everything good fe eat, nuh good fe talk"