Last month started off as bad news for the world's endangered sea turtle populations. On the weekend of July 7 and 8, thousands of leatherback hatchlings were crushed to death on the Grande Riviere coast in the north of Trinidad Island, Trinidad and Tobago, when government workers used heavy machinery to redirect the river that was threatening nearby property. Excavations devastated a kilometre long area that is considered third most significant sea turtle nesting site in the world. Then on the 16th July a burst pipe in the Cayman Turtle Farm, which is a conservation facility for green sea turtles in the West Bay district of the Cayman Islands, and this led to the death of another 300 or so when the water supply had to be turned off.
In a statement on its website, the Foundation declared that:
"In agreement with the Seychelles government, the Island of D’Arros will become a natural reserve, and will be protected according to the applicable standards for such unique areas in the world... It will in particular preserve the breeding grounds present on the islands and further foster the protection of its turtles."
Equally welcome is the success of a hatching project managed by the Thai Navy Sea Turtle Conservation Centre that has now released nearly 1,000 green and hawksbill turtles into the ocean.
Anyone who watched and heard Katherine Hepburn deliver her outstanding monologue on these little creatures in the film Suddenly Last Summer, cannot remain unmoved by their struggle, which is so reminiscent of our own.
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