Farm releases only eight turtles into wild
(CNS): The Cayman Turtle farm released only eight yearling green sea turtles into the wild last month at Seven Mile Beach, despite the release being an important part of its conservation efforts. Sending the new crop on their way, however, Turtle Farm managers said most of the animals return annually to the Cayman Islands to nest and will lay an average of between 500 and 1,000 eggs per year for the next 20 years. The latest group made their way across the sands, instinctively imprinting the local landscape, before gaining the water to begin a new life, officials said. The turtles may now go as far afield as Central and South America, and even the coastal waters of Florida, going some way to assist the survival of the endangered species.
Managing Director of the Cayman Turtle Farm: Island Wildlife Encounter, Tim Adam, described the release as “a kind of culmination and a confirmation of what we do, of what we want to achieve". He said, "We are making a difference here and in the world around us, and that is something Cayman can be proud of.”
Each year the farm releases a number of young turtles during the Pirates Week Festival and members of the public enter a raffle for the opportunity to be the ones that send the turtles back to the ocean.
Category: Science and Nature
OK, accepting that there was a miscommunication on the number of turtles returning and their non-annual re-nesting interval and recognising the work the farm has done in the past, your statement raises a few more questions:
1) How many turtles have been released in each of, say, the last five years?
2) How many scientific papers published (last five years)?
3) Would this include the tagging studies you refer to that show that "many" released turtles return to Cayman. (Note – no one is questioning that any return, just your claims that "many" return.) Actually, why not post this tagging study on your website, whatever its date. Prove your claim. (You could also post your original press releases, so we don’t have to argue over miscommunications. The last one on your website is ~18 months old.)
The problem is that by focusing on its past zoological work (over 31,000 releases & 100 scientific papers) the Farm is actually setting its current activities (releasing 8 turtles for example) in a bad light. Be forthright. Say (as you now have) that we’re not releasing enough turtles now to make a difference because we don’t have the stocks to support effective release sizes any longer. Recognise, as everyone else does, that this is merely a PR excercise. Yes it brings attention to the Farm, but it can also be used to bring attention to the turtles as well. By trying to dress it up as something its not (and using old clothes at that) you merely set yourselves up to fail.
(And by the way I would not consider the sale of turtle meat as being entirely separate from conservation, as you say in your penultimate paragraph. As your last paragraph points out the availability of farmed turtle meat reduces poaching of wild turtles. The Farm is doing good work. Just focus on what you are (or can) do and stop trying to claim to be doing what you’re not, but were. And stop making claims that you can’t back up.)
@Cayman Turtle Farm:
"In addition to releasing tens of thousands of turtles, the Cayman Turtle Farm has joined Universities and institutions in the USA and UK in publishing more than 100 research papers that have contributed to the conservation and care of sea turtles world-wide"
Are these research papers available online? If so, kindly post a link as you appreciate "overwhelming interest".
Pass the Turtle Please
Hmmmm…I am wondering why only 8 were released. Recently when I visited the turtle farm, I was shocked at the amount of turtles they had in one pool. They were overlapping each other and literally no where for them to swim. The size of the tanks they have for these beautiful turtles is way too small. If there is not room for them to grow, they wont grow, their size will be stunted by the conditions they live in. The Turtle Farmwas beautiful but they need more space to swim, grow and enjoy life. They are too crammed in.
All the naysayers seem to forget (or perhaps have not taken the time to educate themselves on this subject) that for over twenty five years, long before it’s breeding stock was decimated by Hurricanes Michelle and Ivan, the Farm released hundreds of turtles on an annual basis.
Your cynicism and sarcasm aside, many Caymanians and many of our neighbours from the Caribbean and Central America will continue to eat turtle meat until it is no longer available. With subsidies, the Turtle Farm has withstood decades of ‘commercial sabotage’ because of international sanctions, despite it being a proven zoological success in it’s efforts to breed and replenish wild turtle populations. I have personally witnessed dozens of wild turtles at any one time in a certain location just off-shore. That is testament to the scientific success of the Farm. Lest I’m accused of hunting turtles, I sat on the beach and marveled (I don’t eat them, never acquired a taste).
Sad to say, however, the commercial viability has long waned and quite possibly, soon the Farm may be no more. The skeptics, naysayers and ‘turtle huggers’ will be happy then as yet another vestige of our culture vanishes. Perhaps they are of the same mentality as those who lauded the eradication of Native American cultures, for example. To them it’s not necessarily about ecology but more about dismissing all things which don’t fit their definition of ‘conformity’.
1) I don’t believe that anyone has claimed that the Farm did not do large releases, large enough to actually result in a turtle or two from each release surviving to return and breed. But do not confuse the success of past releases with the potential success of the current release of 8 turtles. – Logically, there is unlikely to be any success with this release; and that is the point.
2) Yes, the Farm is a zoological success. Yes, it has been subject to international ‘commercial sabotage’. That is all meaningless to the claim that releasing 8 turtles will have a practical positive effect on wild populations, as they imply. That is what is under debate. If they had recognized this as the PR activity it is and used that opportunity to inform about the plights of turtles and ways to help them, rather than self-agrandizing themselves with inaccurate claims regarding the release, then they wouldn’t be in the hot water they are now.
3) Like my challenge to the farm I would challenge you to prove that the dozens of wild turtles you have observed at one location are in any way related to the turtles released from (or any other scientific success of) the Farm. Herein lies the problem of conflating the activities of the farm with the other turtle protection activities that have occurred in Cayman and around the Caribbean. Now, if the farm were (still) doing a lot of good turtle science they might be able to shed some light on the provender of the turtles you observed but, again, show us the evidence for these claims.
(For a counter example of what could be occurring, I point you to the original article which reports that these released turtles do not necessarily stay in Cayman waters, a finding consistent with the transitory life history of turtles. It is actually more likely that sub-adult turtles in Cayman waters are not in fact from Cayman. Maybe they are from Cuba, which recently completely banned the take of all turtles in their waters. As I said, Cayman and others are doing a lot to protect and thereby build turtle populations in the Caribbean. Releasing 8 turtles? That’s not even a drop in the bucket. – Of course, if you think you were seeing dozens of breeding size turtles frolicking in one spot, that’s a different claim altogether; even less likely to be tied to the Turtle Farm’s release programs.)
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ummh yeah, do they truly think that people are so stupid to believe that 8 turtles will make a difference? the only thing they’ll do is make a good meal for some of the sharks out there. as with everything else in the Cayman Islands, just another PR stunt – all fluff, no substance…
This whole thing is meaningless on so many levels. Most return to nest? How do they know any return at all. I don’t see anything about them being tagged. Next, articles during breeding season indicated there were only 40 turtle nests on the whole island. Does anyone know if ANY of them came from the farm? Lastly, why do they think they will return when they are released after they are that big? Is there a study of this? In nature they go to sea when they are a day old and it may well be they imprint on that beach right then and there, just like chicks and ducks do with their mothers. Why don’t they release a thousand hatchlings? Yeah I know many will get eaten up but at least you’d be following the natural process and have some hope of sucess. This is so much #$@^*&(*% it makes my head hurt.
As only one turtle in one thousand survives to adulthood in the wild releasing eight has to be some kind of cosmic joke. I guess we ate all the others.
Green Hornet, these were yearlings, so releasing eight might well equate to a few thousand hatchlings struggling naturally from their nest to the sea, and running the gauntlet of their predators for their first year.
8 turtles released… great. That will really help to make sure the turtles will not get extinct.
Just a quick question: How many turtles got slaughtered in the Turtle Farm in 2010 so far? Maybe somebody wants to file that FOI request with this government entity… I might be wrong – but I think that 8 turtles are not reason enough "to make a difference". It’s a little Public Relation gimmick, so that nobody on this island needs to feel guilty when he/she orders turtle in a restaurant.
I would like to see a commitment from the Turtle Farm like "For every slaughtered turtle we release one into freedom". Then I start to believe that you want to contribute to the survival of the green sea turtle. Otherwise you guys are just a meat factory with some attached tourism-income.
Extremely well said.
A Caymanian Compass article by Alan Markoff on March 1 noted, "Premier McKeeva Bush spoke about the economic reasons for the price increase as well the supply reason.
“If we were to continue harvesting turtles, butchering them, at the rate of 40 turtles per week – the same rate that has been in effect for years up until when the price increased – we would run out of harvestable turtles in the next year and a half, just 18 short months,” he said."
See: http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2010/03/01/Farm-turtles-faced-depletion-by-next-year/
So… 40 per week and 52 weeks per year makes for about 2080 turtles butchered per year.
The Turtle Farm’s own website FAQs noted about 8000 eggs laid in the 2008 season and about 7000 turtles in the herd at the farm. They note a typical release rate of 20 per year. A release of 8 makes for a light year.
Presumably some of the 8000 eggs don’t actually hatch and some turtles may die from causes other than butchering. It seems that a few turtles are stolen from the farm each year as well.
So, to maintain a steady population of turtle stock at the farm they would need to successfully hatch and rear to the age for butchering something like 26.1% of all the eggs laideach year.
want to know how to not feel guilty about ordering turtle at a restaurant? Order something else.
I question question the assertion by the farm that "most of the animals return annually to the Cayman Islands to nest". Specifically that most return, much less annually. Unless the Farm can post those numbers (of returnees) I doubt its most. If their turtles are anything like wild tutles then most (even of ‘yearling’ releases) will get eaten. So, Farm, post up the umbers of (a) releases and (b) percent recorded returning and then we can do the math and see if 8 animals really have any statistical chance of returning to Cayman’s beachs. Ever.
An important conservation effort these releases no longer are. PR, pure and simple. (Not unimportant in its own right, nor even as a conservation activity, but the release itrself is of questionable conservation benefit.)
I think you will find:
a) the 8 turtles released are mature enough to breed, hence why they were relased. that in turn will also bolster the effort as they will nest in and around Cayman barring some crackhead poaching them.
b) releasing "yearlings" is pointless in terms of conservation. as you rightly pointed out most of them get eaten or die.
Since this is only a PR stunt accordig to you, perhaps you can enlighten us on other efforts around the world doing the same?
Pending,
I fear that we must agree to disagree on point (a) until someone who was there can report first-hand that they did not, in fact, release 100lb+ turtles mature enough to breed. Or you could call the Farm and ask them.
As regards (b) I assume that you are asking who else has done releases of turtles and what sort of success have they seen with what sort of numbers? Turning to the internet we find that on San Padre Island, Texas, where they (re)established a population of Kemp’s Ridleys they released over twenty thousand ‘yearlings’ over a ten year period between 1978 and 1988. In recent decades they have switched to releasing hatchlings; currently over 10,000 a year. Their nesting populations are growing. Details are available at the (US) National Park Service’s Padre Island National Seashore Sea Turtle Recovery website (http://www.nps.gov/pais/naturescience/strp.htm).
Please note, I do not claim that releasing turtles, ‘yearlings’ or otherwise, is pointless. My point was that 8 is not going to make a dent because most will get eaten. To overcome this you need to release enough turtles to be significant. How many? I’m sure its not eight. Hence my challenge to the farm to post the numbers. This is why this is merely a PR activity, not the practical conservation activity they paint it as. It is unfortunate that they feel the need to make inaccurate claims (such as most returning annually) to do so.
Maybe you and your mates should start your own turtle farm whereby you could release 10,000,000 turtles a year. That would be worthwhile and noble of you and it would definately make a dent.
Re: San Padre Island, that effort has been thwarted thanks to BP.
8 might not be enough for you lot, but its something and better than nothing. Perhaps you could volunteer your time at the farm so that the number of releases increases? Probably not though cause its more proactive to chat sh*t on a blog site.
Until then, Cayman and I will continue to enjoy stew turtle, mmmmmmmmm.
The island in Texas is South Padre Island, not San Padre, and if you knew anything about the BP oil spill you’d know that in Texas, the only industry really effected was/is the shrimping industry, not turtle conservation.
In terms of other ACTUAL global efforts to revamp the turtle population, and not the Cayman Islands Turtle Farm "Pity" release, the WWF (http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/marineturtles/marineturtles.html) is an organisation with some real teeth. If we really give two shakes about conservation efforts – which Cayman obviously does not as its history is grounded in slaughter and decimation, and its future is grounded in …well…Medical Tourism? – we would put more consideration, even passion, into the passage of a substantive conservation law…Hell, maybe even a threshold that the turtle farm must meet…Perhaps a minimum of 60 turtles released per annum?
Have your turtle, and eat it too, while the rest of the civilized world shakes its head in dismay.
Actually, 8 is not better than nothing, it is nothing. That’s the point.
I do have a turtle farm; but its not releasing enough turtles. Again the point. (And considering the staff they have they don’t need my voluntary help.)
In fact, the reason they can’t release more is because they’re slaughtering them for food. Wrong? No. It’s a farm. But don’t confuse the eating of turtle with the release, or think that this release will help you enjoy the turtle stew more.
While I’m grateful that the Turtle Farm is releasing turtles, I am disappointed at the numbers. Only 8. If the Turtle Farm released a large number of turtles, say 1,000, then that could be something to be proud of.
In addition, the information they provide is misleading. It will take approximately 20 years for a turtle to reach breeding age (if they survive to that age). It is also misleading to state that members of the public "send the turtles back to the ocean" as these are farm raised animals
As an expat, i am horrified/incredulous/amused/disgusted by the use of the turtle as a symbol of Cayman. Even those who should, don’t know the first thing about turtles, their life stages and specific, effective means to conserve and repopulate the species. In reading these comments (as well as the poorly written "article"), it is appalling how uneducated so many are, and they seem to be so opinionated! Caymanians as a whole need to concentrate on education, and the leaders that exist should focus on reducing the deleterious impact their actions have on the surrounding marine and terrestrial environments, before any further irreparable harm is done. It is so, so sad. Your foibles as a people, on levels from education, government, crime and policing , to charity, religion and health care, seem tailor-made for satire. Not to offend, but come on people- this is the 21st century!
What have you done for humanity lately? The Native American, Caymanians and other sufferers of abuse from your regime have a worst future than the turtle. Educated tyrants!
*worse