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900 turtles killed for meat in 2012, CTF reveals
(CNS): The Cayman Turtle Farm has said that over 900 turtles were killed in 2012 to satisfy the local demand for meat, which is only around 10%-15% of the animals held at the farm. However, stepping up the criticism of the WSPA campaign to change it into a conservation facility, the farm’s director said that if it did not supply this local demand, people would poach the animals from the wild. Criticising Cayman’s internationally renowned free diver, Tanya Streeter, for her support of the campaign, Tim Adam said the farm was “saddened” that Streeter, who grew up here, has chosen to align herself with the WSPA, “an organisation that appears to be fuelled by sensationalising, misleading information” about the CTF. (Photo by Patrick Weir)
“We are also disappointed that the WSPA appears to be continuing to expend its resources and funding on a promotional campaign to discredit the Farm, rather than working directly with us to support the improvements we are making in response to the inspection report, or even putting their resources into undertaking actual work in the conservation of sea turtles," Adam added. “We would like to see evidence of tangible conservation efforts the WSPA has contributed on behalf of the Green Sea Turtle in the Cayman Islands.”
Claiming conservation credentials for the CTF, Adam said that Streeter, who was photographed (see above) swimming with wild turtles as part of the WSPA campaign, was able to do that in part because of the work of the CTF. “There are now many more sea turtles seen in the wild around Cayman than there were decades ago,” Adam said. “The Cayman Turtle Farm has contributed significantly to that increase, making it possible for more visitors and residents to see turtles in the wild.”
He said data from the Department of the Environment shows an increase in the number of green sea turtles now nesting in Cayman, several of which, the director claimed, were released from the CTF.
The Turtle Farm provides legally farmed turtle meat, Adam said, reducing the incentive to take turtles from the wild than would be likely if local demand for turtle meat were not met from farmed stocks.
“A review of our turtle meat sales data shows local demand for turtle meat increasing significantly each year in 2011 and 2012. For example, for 2012 it took over 900 turtles to satisfy local demand. If the Cayman Turtle Farm does not supply the local demand for turtle meat … where does Ms Streeter or the WSPA suggest that amount of turtles will come from to allow Caymanians to continue eating turtles?” he asked.
According to the results of a freedom of information request, the numbers killed for meat over the last few years has declined from a high in 2008, when almost 1,700 turtles were slaughtered. The increase in price could have dampened demand for the meat but the stocks at the farm currently remain high. The farm has faced some difficulties in the past regarding its stocks but it is currently home to somewhere in the region of 7000-9000 animals.
The row between the CTF and the international animal charity has gathered pace, and despite claims of a more cordial position after the WSPA's recent visit, hostilities appear to have increased. The WSPA makes the case that to keep so many thousands of turtles, which are not domesticated animals, in the poor conditions at the farm to supply such a low demand for meet is fundamentally wrong.
The CTF continues to refute much of the findings of the well-documented WSPA research, however, despite photographic evidence of the overcrowded conditions, cannibalism, disease and congenital disorders. Even in the face of its own independent review, which confirmed much, though not all, of the findings of the original report from the charity, the farm still says the issues it faces are minor and can easily be addressed.
Adam said that this intensive three-day review of the farm undertaken in December by four internationally recognised sea turtle experts and conservationists had found clear value in the Cayman Turtle Farm’s research and conservation programmes.
“While the report identified some areas for improvement, which the Cayman Turtle Farm is acting upon, the assessment team’s findings also disproved several of the WSPA’s allegations against the Farm,” Adam said. “The WSPA is using Ms Streeter to represent a view that is obviously biased toward WSPA’s objectives,” Adam said.
The WSPA is continuing with its global campaign and says it is not giving up, despite the war of words, on the hope that one day the CTF will stop breeding turtles in the questionable conditions that currently exist purely for meat and switch to conservation, using better animal welfare measures to protect the animals in its care.
Farm hits back at WSPA over ‘smear campaign’
(CNS): Officials from the Cayman Turtle Farm have hit out at the international animal rights charity, WSPA, and accused them of a sensationalized misleading campaign about the dangers of turtle handling. The CTF categorically denies any risk to visitors from handling turtles, pointing to reports that back up that claim as it debunks the research present by the charity, which it said was undertaken by biased scientists associated with the WSPA. Despite what appeared to be a cordial step forward following visits to Cayman by WSPA members last month, the CTF has made it clear, again, that the campaign will not succeed and it will not be transitioning from a farm to a conservation facility.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals released a study earlier this week, published in an on-line supplement of the Royal Society of Medicine’s Journal, which stated that people interacting with captive turtles were at risk. But Tim Adam, the farm’s MD, vehemently denied the research findings and said there was significant evidence to the contrary.
“These latest allegations are another clear effort by the WSPA to undermine the business of the CTF in WSPA’s ongoing goal to shut down our operations, since their campaign thus far has been unsuccessful in achieving that aim,” he said.
While the campaign has certainly failed to persuade the farm to move from a facility with the primary motivation to slaughter the animals for meat with conservation as a parallel part of the work to a full conservation project, the campaign has attracted significant international attention and raised concerns about the legitimacy of the farm around the world. Furthermore, WSPA succeeded in drawing attention to a significant amount of problems at the farm, in particular animal welfare issues, some of which have now been acknowledged by the CTF and as a result are being addressed.
Nevertheless, the farm still claims that there are only limited issues at the tourist attraction and is adamant that handling turtles is safe. It has denied the WSPA findings, accusing it of funding the research to try and help it achieve the objective of stopping people from handling turtles as well as stopping the trade of meat. WSPA confirmed that the research carried out by Clifford Warwick, a reptile expert from the Emergent Disease Foundation, was funded by the charity. However, the findings were published by the medical journal’s supplement on merit and not because it was paid, as was claimed by the farm.
As the dispute between the CTF and the animal charity continues in the local and international media spotlight, Adam continued to claim that handling turtles was safe and as a “leading facility in turtle research and conservation”, he said it followed safe turtle handling protocols communicated to guests via signs and spoken instructions.
“All turtle handling is supervised, and the established protocols follow the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for the safe handling of reptiles,” the managing director added.
He said that in over 40 years of operations at the farm there has never been a single known recorded case of illness or disease transmitted to any visitor, even though there are some 200,000 per year, most of whom handle the animals. Adam also claimed that there had never been any recorded cases of turtle handling causing illness for staff, many of whom had worked there for several years.
“The CTF sees literally hundreds of interactions per day between guests and turtles, with guests of a range of ages,” Adam said, noting it had never seen any cases of disease transmission because of the safety precautions. Nevertheless, the director admitted that the signs and hand washing facilities were only upgraded last year.
Adam pointed to the review the CTF had voluntarily undertaken this December. However, the decision to invite an independent review of the farm came only after the shocking revelations by WSPA, which were documented in pictures alongside the scientific findings.
The CTF continues to criticize the research, even though its own review and previous research that had been kept under wraps dovetailed with some of the WSPA’s findings. .
Speaking specifically about the turtle handling, the farm said the team that conducted the December review, which was made public last month, did not find any risk of turtle handling to the health and safety of CTF guests.
“Given changes to operating practices where handling is supervised and hand washing is offered and encouraged, the panel had no concern in this regard.”
The farm criticised WSPA’s work in general as well as the latest concerns about the spread of disease. The director said the previous research was conducted undercover and was in incomplete as their investigation was carried out without the cooperation of the CTF and without full access to the farm. The director also criticized the WSPA for not releasing all of its research while the Turtle Farm management had released the latest report in full.
However, previous research had been kept under wraps at the farm and was not released until it became the target of the animal rights group, which began making Freedom of Information requests as well as conducting its own research, all of which was placed in the public domain.
In a lengthy statement refuting the claims by the WSPA research and denying that there was any risk to visitors health, the farm director did not mention the issue of the stress that scientists also say the turtles undergo when they are handled by visitors.
Adam accused WSPA of misrepresentation in order to damage the farm’s reputation and impede its work. While WSPA has denied any desire to impede the conservation work, it freely admits that it wants to stop the farm from slaughtering the more than 7,000 creatures it currently has there for meat.
The CTF continues to claim conservation credentials, based on a combination of the research that is conducted by scientists around the world on turtles there was well as the release programme. Over 150 scientific papers have been published or presented over the lifespan of the farm and some 31,000 turtles have been released into the wild.
Over the same period many more thousands have been slaughtered and eaten.
See the full report here
See related story here
See full statement from turtle farm below.
Scientists find guests at risk from handling turtles
(CNS): Although the Cayman Turtle Farm insists that the handling of their captive turtles is safe for visitors, research published by the Royal Society of Medicine has found otherwise. According to the scientists, while it may be safe to handle wild turtles, the captive animals can expose tourists to toxic contaminants and zoonotic pathogens that can jump from animals to people. Symptoms from these bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites don’t always show themselves immediately and on the surface can seem like gastrointestinal disorders or flu, but seriously affected people can suffer from septicaemia, pneumonia, meningitis and acute renal failure. (Photo by Michelle de Villiers)
The research by the London based medical journal contradicts claims by the CTF that there is no risk to visitors, a point it has been at pains to stress after the cruise lines, which send a significant number of passengers on trips to the farm when calling on Grand Cayman, had raised concerns about the risks to their customers.
The scientists confirm findings by the animal activist charity, World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), which is campaigning for the CTF to transition towards a conservation facility. The biggest bacterial culprits are E.Coli and Salmonella, although there are some lower infection threats from viruses such as Vibrio.
Holiday experiences that expose tourists to sea turtles may allow people to pick up the animals from confined pools, although some even allow tourists to eat turtle meat raised in intensive farm-like conditions.
The paper included a case study from the Cayman Turtle Farm (CTF) in Grand Cayman, which is unique as the only facility in the world to rear sea-turtles as meat available to the public, as well as being open to the thousands of tourists which pour off the cruise ships onto the island every day. The intensive and cramped conditions which the farm works under – in both the production and front of house tourist areas – can serve to concentrate these pathogens and increase risk to those people visiting the farm, the research revealed.
Clifford Warwick of the Emergent Disease Foundation, the lead author of the report, warned that the distribution of visitors exposed to the turtle farm presented opportunities for contaminants to spread through tourist hubs, including cruise ships and airline carriers.
Warwick expressed concerns that awareness of the potential human health threats posed by facilities such as the CTF may not be well understood by healthcare professionals and public awareness may be even lower, stating that overcoming this would be key to prevent and control the spread of sea turtle-related diseases.
Due to this low awareness people rarely trace back or attribute their illness to a recent experience handling wild sea turtles. This, along with the often generic nature of the symptoms, makes it hard to track the full distribution of these pathogens.
The WSPA’s campaign leaders said the charity was not surprised by the scientific findings.
“This independent peer reviewed scientific paper demonstrates that the recent assessment of the Farm’s operations is inherently flawed,” he said “We hope that the Cayman Turtle Farm recognizes that the only real way to completely remove the human health threat will be to end the ‘unique wildlife encounter’ currently at the facility and takes steps to do so, which will also immediately improve the lives of the turtles in their care.”
The CTF, however, has on a number of occasions denied any risk to its visitors by handling the turtles. Following an inspection commissioned by the farm in December the CTF management said the inspectors confirmed there were no health or injury concerns with regard to guests handling turtles, either for the turtles or for the humans interacting with them.
In a short comment on Tuesday morning, which a spokesperson for the CTF said would be followed up with a more comprehensive statement, officials said the allegations were misleading and sensationalised.
"The Cayman Turtle Farm follows and enforces strict turtle handling protocols that are communicated to its guests through signage and spoken instructions. All turtle handling is supervised, and the established protocols follow the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for the safe handling of reptiles," the spokesperson added.
The farm said the lack of risk to humans was supported as over 40 years millions of guests have handled turtles but there has not been one single known case of transmission of illness or disease.
"This is a clear effort by the WSPA to undermine the business of the CTF in its on-going goal to shut down our operations, since their campaign thus far has been unsuccessful," the CTF stated, undermining comments by the WSPA that during its recent visit with farm management lines of communication had been opened.
Cayman free diver wants to see free turtles
(CNS): Local free diving star Tanya Streeter has joined the campaign to end the farming of endangered sea turtles in Cayman and was with representatives from the World Society for the Protection of Animals when they handed in apetition with 144,000 signatures to the Cayman government this week. The free dive world champion and world record holder has also spoken out against the Cayman Turtle Farm, which is currently housing around 7,000 endangered sea turtles in cramped, unhealthy and diseased conditions. The WSPA was visiting Cayman to pick up a report commissioned by the CTF following the charity's own findings about the problems at the attraction and to talk with management and government about changing the facility from a farm to a real conservation facility.
Although that goal continues to find little support among officials in Cayman, the campaigners have at least made the CTF management address some of the major animal welfare issues at the facility. As well as finally admitting that disease and health problems exist among the captive population, the CTF has begun the process of recruiting a vet.
The WSPA is not only pressing for better welfare conditions but to transition the facility into a fully-fledged conservation centre. However, as the ultimate goal of the Cayman Turtle Farm is to produce meat as a means of discouraging people from poaching turtles from the wild, the charity is up against significant opposition.
During a year-long undercover investigation the WSPA brought to light the extent of the problems at the CTF, from turtles with damaged flippers and missing eyes to cannibalism in the the overcrowded, dirty tanks in which the turtles are held captive. As a result the turtles are distressed, diseased and damaged.
Streeter, a Women’s Diving Hall of Fame free-diver, who handed the petition to the CTF and government on Tuesday 29 January, said turtles should not be kept in the overcrowded, dirty, concrete tanks at the Cayman Turtle Farm.
“I grew up on the island and it was my home for a long time,” she said “Free-diving in the waters off the Cayman Islands is a beautiful experience. It is also one of the few places you can get up close and personal with the magnificent endangered green sea turtle. I’m supporting the World Society for Protection of Animals as turtles are solitary animals, and are most at home when they are swimming free in the ocean,” Streeter added.
See Streeter talk about the conditions at the CTF here
Conservationists says CTF released injured turtles
(CNS): Last Sunday the Cayman Turtle Farm set the largest number of young turtles free in one gofor more than a decade, but a conservation organisation said that some of those animals were injured. The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), which is mounting a campaign to turn the farm into a conservation facility, said it had a representative at the event who took photographs and documented injuries to some of the turtles being released. Organised in conjunction with the Pirate’s Week Committee, the release, which involved participation by members of the public, took place on the shores of the North Sound. (WSPA photo shows turtle with chunk bitten out of rear flipper)
WSPA recently published a damning report about the Cayman Turtle Farm (CTF) and has been pressing the Farm's management to work with them to phase out the breeding of turtles for meat and instead create a world class facility for conservation of the various endangered turtle species. The Cayman Turtle Farm has in turn denied all of the serious accusations made by WSPA and has stated that it will be carrying out its own independent audit next month.
In a press release about Sunday’s event, the CTF said it featured a significantly higher number of turtles being released than in recent years, “largely due to a highly successful nesting season, which saw a record number of eggs laid and an increased hatching rate.”
However, the WSPA raised concerns that the release was a PR stunt to detract from the bad publicity the Farm has received following the publication of its revelations that pointed to numerous shortcomings and major concerns at the CTF. WSPA Central America and the Caribbean Programmes Officer and trained veterinarian, Roberto Vieto, said that what appeared on the surface to be a coup for sea turtle conservation was another example of bad practice.
“The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) had a supporter on the ground during the release, who saw evidence of turtles with visible defects being released,” he stated. “The Cayman Turtle Farm allowed untrained Cayman residents or tourists to freely handle the baby sea turtles; this bad handling practice can be extremely stressful for the animals, plus potentially affect the successful adaptation of the sea turtles in their natural habitat.”
Questioning the huge surge in turtles released this year after several years of modest release, the conservation expert wondered if it was merely a reaction to the bad publicity.
“WSPA believes the recent release is further evidence that the Farm is ignoring our concerns about continuing animal cruelty and bad practice. WSPA is still hoping to engage with the Farm constructively on these issues, but unfortunately the Farm seems unwilling to listen,” Vieto added.
The Turtle Farm acknowledged that many people were involved in the release as it had raffled the chance to release one of 20 of the turtles, with the other 80 being released by lucky spectators chosen on the day itself.
“Our release programme is dear to our hearts and a central component of our conservation activities as we continue to preserve the Green Sea Turtle population,” said Cayman Turtle Farm Managing Director Tim Adam. “This is a very important event for us, as we are releasing a larger number of turtles than we have in several years.”
He added that the release was the ultimate expression of the Farm’s conservation mission.
“As these baby turtles cross the sand, enter the water and start new lives in the sea, it is an awesome moment that gives us hope for the future — hope that the wild population will continue to grow and flourish with our help. With releases such as this one, the Cayman Turtle Farm is boosting native stocks and helping to rebuild a wildlife population that in the past had become almost completely depleted,” he added.
Both yearlings and advanced hatchlings were released and some were fitted withPassive Integrated Transponders (PIT tags) injected under the skin to allow researchers to identify the animals and better understand migration and nesting patterns.
Despite the injuries and defects documented by the observer from the WSPA, the Farm said that, as part of the release, turtles were quarantined and reviewed for any disease or defect and yearlings were prepared by being placed in conditions that replicate the natural habitat beforehand.
The Farm said that people who could not be at Sunday’s event could join the “virtual” turtle release event on the Cayman Turtle Farm’s Research and Conservation Facebook page to view photos and video of the event.
Although the Farm now says the rise in numbers is the beginning of a return to major release in the future, WSPA noted that of the 5,000 green sea turtles at the facility last year less than 1% were released, while over 14% died due to stress, disease and deformity and 15% were slaughtered for meat. Of the 31,000 turtles the farm claims to have released since the 1960s, only a dozen turtles nesting on Cayman's beaches have tags — a 0.04% success rate for conservation after some 40 years.
Related article on CNS: Report slams Turtle Farm
Read more about The World Society for the Protection of Animals
Branson does about turn on turtles
(CNS): The owner of the Virgin Group, who claims to be an avid support of conservation and who had been one of the critics of the Cayman Turtle Farm, has done an about turn on his position following his visit to the Cayman Islands. The shift in position by Richard Branson came even though he did not visit the facility. Branson, who was in Cayman for the KPMG sponsored Legend’s tennis tournament and Cayman Alternative Investment Summit, he said he spoke to people and learned that by breeding the turtles on land, Cayman has protected the ones in the ocean. It had, he said, created a tourist attraction while satisfying the “few locals” who continue to eat turtles.
“Obviously for many of us around the world we’d prefer that didn’t happen but in my opinion it’s certainly better than taking them from the sea. I’ve met the Chief Minister about the farm and he agrees there are some improvements that need tobe made,” Branson said in his blog following his visit to the Cayman Islands.
“There are still too many kept in one tank at a time and the farm needs to ensure there are regular checks of the water quality and also monitor the health of the turtles. The local experts assured me changes were happening and the farm also releases a lot into the ocean which is building up the numbers in the wild," he added.
Branson is part of an organisation called the Oceanic Elders which champions the conservation of oceans, and his sudden change of heart is unlikely to sit well with them. In addition, his revised opinion was picked up by the British press, who pitched the idea that he and Paul McCartney would soon be at “loggerheads” because the former Beatle had thrown his weight completely behind the World Society for the Protection of Animals campaign to have the farm become a conservation facility.
Whatever the reason for the Virgin boss's about face while here, he had lots of praise for Cayman’s conservation efforts, which he seemed to think were down mostly down to the courage of the country’s “prime minister”.
Speaking to the former owner of the Ritz-Carlton, Michael Ryan, who was responsible for the removal of more than $370,000sq ft of mangroves on land in Safehaven, Branson said that it was great to see the environmental efforts undertaken by the Cayman Islands Government.
With the backdrop of the DoE currently attempting to drum up support for their plans to protect Cayman’s marine environment for the next 25 years, Branson was impressed by the existing protection for conch, lobster and grouper. Branson said a lot of islands in the Caribbean did not have such protections and as a result conch and lobster had almost disappeared.
Branson told Ryan, who has yet to explain what he now intends to do about the promised mangrove replenishment programme on his former proposed Dragon Bay site given his current difficulties, that it had been a pleasure to be in the Cayman Islands and to meet with “your prime minister” as he had listened to the way Cayman was protecting the oceans around the islands.
The Virgin boss informed the standing room only audience that he was impressed that “the prime minister has been brave enough to protect the grouper. There are certain places in the world where enormous quantities of groupers come to breed and they could have been stamped out without creating that marine park.”
Despite throwing hisbacking behind the Turtle Farm, Branson talked about sharks, none of which are protected in Cayman waters. He said sharks were being decimated as one and a half million are killed each week for their fins so the Chinese can have shark fin soup.
“The Oceanic Elders are going out to campaign to try and get countries to protect sharks and they are trying to get people in China to realise the damage they are doing,” Branson said about the conservation group of which he is a member.
Speaking about manta rays, which are killed for their gills, he said, “It’s absolutely ghastly to see the slaughter of giant manta rays around the world for medicine … Where you do have marine parks created, local fishermen benefit enormously because the breeding that goes on in the marine reserves means the fish spill out. So the local fishermen do benefit from it. Over a few years they gain as well.”
Sir Thomas Turtleton becomes global celebrity
(CNS): The 600lb adult turtle that was released after more than 30 years in captivity at the Cayman Turtle Farm has become an international celebrity. Sir Thomas Turtleton, who was satellite-tagged and released to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, was featured in news stories all over the world in the days following his release. The world is now watching as Sir Tom continues on an incredible migration. Once in the ocean, the turtle, which is estimated to be around sixty years old, headed south and is currently close to the border of Nicaragua. Despite being confined to the farm for three decades, Sir Thomas has travelled over 500kms since his release.
"Sir Thomas spent several decades in the wild honing his survival and foraging skills before becoming a breeder at the Cayman Turtle Farm,” Cayman Turtle Farm Chief Research Officer, Dr Walter Mustin said, adding that he expected those skills had remained intact. “Two decades of CTF tagging studies have demonstrated that even farm raised yearlings, raised on artificial feed and then released to the wild, successfully transition to wild diets, grow, migrate, mature, return to Cayman to mate and nest, and survive. Sir Thomas’ present track suggests that his migratory and survival skills are fully functional.”
Cayman Turtle Farm Managing Director Tim Adam explained that turtles spend a lot of time in either their feeding range sometimes called their foraging range or their breeding range where females lay their eggs.
“Those two areas may be spread many hundreds of miles apart,” Adam said. “As we are now in the midst of breeding season for Green Sea turtles, it is possible that Sir Thomas Turtleton has chosen this area of the Caribbean around Central America as his breeding range. Another interesting observation on his track is that for just about all of his migration path he was swimming perpendicular to the main sea currents, so that may have been a factor in his choice of initial destination.”
As of Wednesday morning the 600-plus pound male Green Sea Turtle was just off the coast of Honduras above the Nicaraguan border. Sir Thomas Turtleton began his southbound migration from Grand Cayman at around 11:00am EST on 3rd June.
His movements are being monitored as part of the Cayman Turtle Farm’s “Tag and Track” release programme, which was inaugurated earlier this year with the release of “Jerry” – the Cayman Turtle Farm’s first satellite-tracked turtle.
Sir Thomas Turtleton was originally caught near Suriname, South America, in the 1970s which may be where he is heading. The team at the Cayman Turtle Farm will use the data sent by the turtle tracker as signs that he has successfully survived the re-introduction to the wild, and scientists, both at the Farm and in other research organisations around the world, can view and assess the turtle's migration path.
Updates on Sir Thomas Turtleton’s progress will also be regularly posted on the Cayman Turtle Farm Facebook page, at www.facebook.com/caymanturtle or his migration or can be followed on the Sea Turtle website
Turtle swims towards home in new found freedom
(CNS): Sir Thomas Turtleton, a former long term resident of the Cayman Turtle Farm, has made the most of his new found freedom. The turtle, which was released last weekend to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee, has dodged the poachers and made it all the way to the Nicaraguan border. The 60-year-old turtle, which weighs some 600lbs, was originally caught near Surinam, South America, in the 1970’s as an adult male and was part of the initial captive breeding stock at Mariculture Ltd, which became the Cayman Turtle farm. According to the satellite tracker fitted onto Sir Thomas, in just over a week of freedom the turtle has travelled 372 kilometres towards his original home.
The turtle was released into the North Sound on the afternoon of Saturday 2 June after more than three decades in captivity. He is fitted with a satellite tag which is programmed to transmit when Sir Thomas surfaces and collect dive data and GPS positioning when he is underwater. Data reports so far show the turtle has been travelling at an average speed of 2.3 km/hr (1.4 mph). Over a set of 4-hour sampling periods, his maximum dive duration has ranged from 21 to 24 minutes, and after years of being in a shallow tank Sir Thomas is making the most of the ocean, having spent up to 97% of his time under water.
By Monday morning Sir Thomas Turtleton had arrived at the continental shelf off the coast of Honduras, near the border of Nicaragua. He was in the water between 100 metres and 200 metres deep and was still heading southwest. His average speed slowed down when he reached the shallower water.
You can follow Sir Thomas at http://www.seaturtle.org
‘Tag & Track’ offers direct pay in to turtle research
(CNS): The Cayman turtle farm has begun a new research and conservation initiative the Cayman Turtle with the “Tag and Track” sponsorship packages to follow released turtles. Fitted with satellite transmitters farm-reared turtles can be released into the ocean and their journey’s monitored. The farm released the first satellite-tagged second-generation, captive bred juvenile Green Sea Turtle in February. Jerry made history when he was released at a private event in East End by his sponsor's and farm crew. As Jerry travels, the turtle farm team has been able to use the data as a sign he has successfully survived the introduction to the wild.
Scientists, from Cayman’s farm and at other organizations around the world, can view and assess the turtle's migration path.
“Jerry’s transmission on Sunday afternoon April 15 showed that the turtle was approximately sixteen miles south of the cays near Isle of Youth (Isla de la Juventud), Cuba, and heading north," Time Adam the Tirtle Farm director revealed. “After staying close to shore around Grand Cayman apparently feeding comfortably and spending most of the time in the North Sound for the first few weeks, it seems Jerry was getting ready for a long journey.”
He said it was an exciting time for the farm as scientists believe sea turtles play many important ecological roles in the environment
“Green Sea turtles are thought to help maintain the health of the sea grass beds from which they feed, and healthy sea grass beds are important to the overall marine environment such as coral shoals, sand bars, reefs and beaches," Adam said. "There is still much to be discovered and we are continuing to play a part in solving these mysteries.
"Just as important for us in Cayman especially is the cultural significance of the Green Sea Turtle – in helping them we help keep alive our very own heritage. Of course, we cannot do this alone and all tracked turtle releases need the support of sponsors from the community and we look forward to that continued support with Jerry being just the first of several,” he added.
Satellite tracking and monitoring, or 'satellite telemetry', is a process where a tracking device called a Position Tracking Terminal (or PTT) is attached to a sea turtle's carapace (shell). The PTT sends signals to a satellite when the turtle comes to the surface during pre-set transmission time "windows". These signals are messages to scientists via the satellite regarding the location of the turtle, and other data such as maximum dive duration and percentage of time spent underwater. The positions are then plotted onto a map. The devices are designed to cause as little disruption to the swimming sea turtle as possible, and to keep transmitting for months.
Currently around the world thousands of satellite transmitters are in use covering a broad range of projects ranging from monitoring ocean circulation, polar currents, and natural hazards, to movements of wildlife which includes turtles, other species of marine animals such as whales and sharks, various land animals, and now even birds.
“The Department of the Environment has previously attached satellite tags to a few adult turtles that had returned to nest on our beaches,’ said Dr. Walter Mustin, Chief Research Officer at the Cayman Turtle Farm. “Traditional tagging studies using “living tags” have shown that juveniles released from the farm decades ago are now returning to nest on Cayman beaches. It is exciting to now be able to employ this satellite tracking method on our second generation captive-bred juvenile turtles from the time they are first released into the wild.
“Using satellite telemetry we can begin to answer questions like: Is there a pattern to the juvenile turtle's movements and migration? Do they stay around known food sources? How are their movements related to ocean currents? How fast do they move? How much time do they spend submerged in shallow or deep water? Where are they during those “lost years”? Do they migrate to the coastlines of other countries? These are some of the many questions that satellite tracking studies can help answer, “ Dr Mustin noted.
The turtle expert said that if the transmitter is fitted properly and securely it can yield up to a year’s worth of useful information via satellite.
“We invite other corporate and individual sponsors to get involved in this project as it is the collective data from many released juvenile turtles that will lead to greater insights about the species and it is the shared information that will help guide conservation management, future releases and replenishment plans,” added Dr. Mustin. “It also proves beneficial in being able to prepare for future crisis events such as oil spills or global warming and rising ocean levels.”
As sea turtles are migratory, there are many thousands of unknown miles between where they feed and live and the places where they breed and lay their eggs. There are also a few years in the lives of hatchlings and juveniles in the wild about which surprisingly little is known for sure.
Green Sea Turtles, along with five other species of sea turtles, are listed as Critically Endangered or Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is believed that many populations are still declining all around the world bringing to the forefront the importance of protecting these animals. Obtaining more information on the behaviours and migrations of juvenile sea turtles will provide invaluable information to help save them in the future.
Jerry was sponsored by Cory Strander and family, who own a vacation home on Queen’s Highway. “Mr. Strander lives in Louisiana and runs several different businesses. It was through a business relationship that he became aware of the new sponsorship opportunity and we were delighted to have our first “Tag and Track” sponsor,” Adam explained.
Jerry can be followed online at the seaturtle.org link shown on our webpagewww.turtle.ky/current-project.”
Cuddly turtles help feed the real thing
(CNS): The sales of the cuddly “Sir Turtle” by the Tortuga Rum Company are to benefit real turtles at the Cayman Turtle Farm after the store donated over $600 to the farm’s breeder nutrition research programme. The money was raised following just a few months of the toy which has proved very popular going on sale. Walter Mustin, Ph.D., Chief Research Officer of the turtle breeding program said that the funds will be used to assist with the preparation of a new and improved diet for breeding turtles.
Mustin explained that the money would help in the goal of replenishing the waters of the Caribbean with green sea turtles. “Without such efforts and the kindness and concern of citizens and corporations in Cayman, this important conservation work would not be possible,” he said.
Illustrating how important it is to return turtles to the wild he said ones tagged at the Turtle Farm as long ago as the 1980’s have been returning to Cayman to lay their eggs. This means the efforts to save the turtles are having real results. “It takes roughly 30 years for turtles in the wild to complete their life cycle, and become mature enough to lay eggs” said Dr. Mustin. “Seeing them return to Cayman’s shores after such a long time is such an encouragement, and shows that what we are doing here is working.
“It was a special moment for me to be able to contact Dr. Robert Schroeder the scientist who pioneered this work in the 1970’s to let him know that the mature turtles were back and had survived in the wild and were now home, all grown up and laying their own eggs on Cayman beaches.”
In recent years the farm has reduced the number of turtles returning to the wild because of problems with the breeding numbers. The farm increased the price of turtle meat to reflect the true cost of rearing the endangered species but it is continuing in the battle to overcome the breeding problems. Nutrition has been identified as one of the possible problems and scientists at the farm are trying to improve the food fed to the breeding turtles.
However, over the years, the farm has placed more than 31,000 endangered green sea turtles into the wild since its 1968 founding and the goal is to return to a position where the farm can breed more turtles to release.
“Sir Turtle” are available t any Tortuga location, or on line at www.tortugarums.com. With every one sold $3.00 is donated to the Turtle Farm.