Lately it has been a bit harder to find time to write, as so many interesting things have been happening. Since I last wrote I was able to go mist netting as well as participate in the mammal monitoring program. Although I have done a lot of cool things since I last wrote, I think this topic is very important so I am going to try to touch on it.
The other night when one of our night patrols was out they came across hawksbill tracks. As they followed it up they realized that there was no turtle nesting, but no down tracks back to the ocean either. This is what we call a lifted turtle. This is one of the moments that really disheartens you here. Along with finding a dead turtle, or seeing poached nests, a lifted turtle is one of those things that stops and makes you think about the circumstances which have led to an endangered species still being killed.
People who poach come to the north beach, Playa Norte, because of the numbers of turtles that come to nest here -- or that used to come to nest here. They also choose to come here because the beach further down has more ecotourism operations that would make it more difficult to poach there. During the height of green turtle nesting season, which is from June to October, poachers from the local town of San Francisco as well as from out of town will come here to either take eggs and/or turtles -- for their meat or for their shells.
It is very difficult, however, to form a distinct opinion of the situation. On one hand, you have families that may need to feed extra relatives coming in from out of town for a couple of nights, who take eggs from a nest, but on the other hand you have people taking turtles such as the hawksbill the other night, for their meat and for their shells -- hawksbill shells are highly valued on the black market. Not that I am condoning poaching in any way, but despite our preconceived notions of how bad it is to poach, it is also important in these cases to remember how our actions may be perceived by the local community who have been relying on these turtles as a source of food and money for longer than we have been here.
These are the kinds of issues that I and I think other volunteers struggle with understanding, and I am not sure that we ever will. But for now I just hope that our actions here can have a lasting positive impression for the community and have a positive impact for the nesting turtles.
On a more positive note, here are some fun pictures from the past few weeks...
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| Nest digging competition, to practice digging fake egg chambers to help disguise nests. |
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| The aftermath... |
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| Bingo fundraiser at the local school. |
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| Boat ride back from bingo. |
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| Night patrol ninjas. |
