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Can the Olive Ridleys Survive?
Ted has the Answer Development Alternatives is the national host institution for the UNDP-GEF/Small Grants Programme. One of the projects funded under SGP is in the area of bio-diversity towards conservation of the olive ridley sea turtles. Project Swarajya, an Orissa based NGO is executing the project – “Turtle Excluder Devices in Shrimp Fishing Trawls.” The aims of the project are:
A Threatened Species Sea turtles have been around for more than 150 million years predating the dinosaurs. That they have been around for these millions of years is no small wonder, but they may also go the way of the dinosaurs - for quite different reasons though. Sea turtles - all eight species, Leatherback, Hawksbill, Loggerhead, Black turtle, Australian flatback, Green turtle, Kemp’s ridley and Olive ridley are all threatened species, some heading for extinction. Hunted for meat, leather, shells, sea turtles have suffered great decline in population. The turtles are prolific breeders, but their eggs are much sought after in different parts of the globe as an aphrodisiac and energising protein. The breeding grounds are most vulnerable to the presence of all sorts of predators - jackals, wild dogs, monitor lizards, hyenas, kites, ospreys and sea gulls. Of the thousands of eggs laid by a female turtle, few survive to reach the adult stage - not more than 2 to 3 per hundred eggs. The hatchlings, while moving from the beach to the sea, are fair game to all birds and beasts of prey on land and sea. The imbalanced development of coastal tracts for tourism industry, aquaculture and other types of habitat too damage the ecosystems irreversibly destroying the nesting places to which the turtles can not return. Though the turtles have been around for aeons, little is known about them. They continue to be a mystery - so little is known about where each species grows to maturity, how long it takes them to grow up, or what the survival rates are. We have no precise data about important aspects of their life cycle - their routes of migration, nervous system and how they navigate their way in the oceans. Intensive research work commenced in mid 50s. The mass nesting behaviour of the olive ridleys has proved to be a fascinating subject of study to the researchers.
In
addition, the olive ridleys are facing another serious threat.
During their to and fro journey to the nesting ground, they get
accidentally caught in trawl nets and get killed in large numbers -
hundreds of them every day globally. It is indeed a tragedy. One
adult turtle dead means loss of thousands of eggs as each turtle
lays 60 to 100 eggs in an annual breeding cycle. The Breeding Grounds
The olive ridleys swim through thousands of kilometres to reach
their nesting grounds - the largest one located at Gahirmatha beach
in Bhitarkanika Sanctuary on the Orissa coast. The second largest
rookery of the olive ridleys lies on a less than kilometre stretch
of Pacific coast, Ostional beach in Costa Rica. Hundreds of turtles
pour out of the surf in wave after wave through the darkness of
night trudging up the beach sand, work up nests by digging sand with
their flaps making a soft thumping sound. They retreat back to the
sea before it gets light, depositing their load of 60 to 100 eggs,
packing sand over the nest hoping they have done enough to safeguard
the perpetuation of the species! The waves continue through the
night, colliding and piling up, all in a great hurry to unload their
eggs. Costa Ricans call the phenomenon ‘la arribida’ - the
arrival. It is time for the predators including humans to get
into action. La Arribida: Orissa Coast Why the largest landing takes place at Gahirmatha beach almost a hemisphere away (almost 30,000 km) along the Orissa coat is a mystery that science has yet to unravel. We have now data available on mass nesting for two decades. In certain years over half a million female turtles visited this rookery (1982-83, 86-87, 90-91, 92-93, 93-94). There were lean years when less than a lakh were spotted (81-82, 85-86, 87-88).
In
recent years, the Gahirmatha beach has got bifurcated during one of
the severe cyclones and turtles are tending to congregate on the
Wheeler group of islands which are under occupation of the Ministry
of Defence. Fortunately, the MoD are aware of the environmental
impact their installations have, particularly the powerful
floodlights causing disorientation of the new-born hatchlings and
the MoD have taken mitigation measures. The Turtle and the Trawl
To-day the greatest threat to turtles is their getting trapped in
shrimp trawl nets. An olive ridley turtle which can live for a
hundred years or so, dies within an hour if it can not surface for
intake of air. Thousands of turtles used to die every year from US
shrimp trawling in the Gulf of Mexico. The species being mostly
loggerheads and Kemp’s ridleys. Along the Orissa coast, it is
the olive ridleys that are getting decimated. No TED, No Shrimp!
The need for conservation of sea turtles has been accepted
globally. The
It
was not easy to enforce TED compliance in the Gulf of Mexico. There
was great resentment among the trawl community that the installation
of TED, other than its cost, will allow fish also to escape with the
turtle. It has taken a few years to overcome the prejudices and the
fishermen have made peace with the US authorities! Along the Orissa
coast, more than 500 trawls operate to catch shrimp. The exported
quantity is about 7000 metric tonne, earning foreign exchange to the
tune of 50 million US dollars. Thousands of livelihoods are
involved. Efforts required for introducing the TED regime in India
are in the area of generation of awareness; breaking down the
prejudices of the trawl community; and to provide the TED technology
options at a reasonably low cost. TED – What’s the Problem?
The simplest and most widely used TED is the Georgia Jumper, which is best suited to our coast. This TED is made up of solid steel/fibre glass/ aluminium rod. These materials withstand the rough conditions of the sea very well.
The TED works best for turtle exclusion and shrimp retention when
installed at angles between 30 to 55 from the horizontal. However,
the ideal angle is 45° or near about. NMFS at Paradeep TED equipment consists of one sock-like ‘webbed’ funnel that quickens the flow of water and the catch towards the back of the net. At the end of the metal frame funnel is the bar grid. Shrimp shoot through the bars into the net, but the turtles slide down the bars and hit a webbed flap which pops open allowing escape! National Marine Fisheries Service, USA is active in dissemination and transfer of TED technology. The NMFS participated in a workshop on TED at Paradeep, the major port in Orissa, that was organised by the Department of Fisheries, government of Orissa and an NGO –Project Swarajya based at Cuttack.
At
the workshop, the American resource persons demonstrated
construction of TED from locally available materials and a TED was
installed in a trawl net. During actual trawling, an olive ridley
got trapped in the net and it managed to escape demonstrating the
efficacy of the device. On the same day, the participants had also
the opportunity of witnessing the sad sight of a floating carcass of
olive ridley leaving no doubt whatever on the imperative of
introducing the TED. The NGO “Project Swarajya” was funded by
GEF-SGP to promote and demonstrate the TED as a means of protection
of ‘Sea Turtles’ and to generate awareness among the trawl community
and the policy makers; and to advocate for legislation to make
installation of TED compulsory. Other complementary mitigation
measures recommended are to bring the trawl community under the
surveillance of the Coast Guard during the months of November to
March (the breeding season), and to ban mechanised crafts fishing
within the 20 km zone off the shore-line. What is at stake is not
the survival of the olive ridleys alone, but also 50,000 livelihoods
should USA decide to be more assertive in enforcing the TED law.
Acceptance of TED only means overcoming barriers to change and
bearing the small cost of the equipment. But TED should also make
good business sense. A trapped turtle that has no escape device
gets entangled in the net, damages it and the fish escape. TED
must, therefore, be given an open-minded trial by the trawl
community. Live and Let Live Sea turtles are a source of protein for man no doubt and they are also a renewable resource like fish. They forage for jelly fish, sponges, grasses, moluscs or crabs in all but the coldest of oceans. With a high fecundity and ability to convert a high percentage of food consumed into body biomass, the turtle can be utilised on sustainable basis like fish resource instead of its eggs being senselessly allowed to be predated on the nesting grounds or the adults decimated in the waters of the oceans by trawls. These ancient mariners are reminders of the limits of human knowledge - fifty years of intensive research has still not revealed the secrets of how the hatchlings grow, where they grow, when they mature, how they find their mates, how they navigate their way back to the rookery where they were born when it is time for an adult female ridley to lay its eggs! Though the olive ridleys have been around for millions of years, there can be no harm if they are allowed to roam the oceans for some more time with a little human support. Give the olive ridleys a chance, man! q |
US Government has enacted
Public Law 101-162 making it obligatory for commercial shrimp trawl
fisheries to adopt “Turtle Excluder Device” with the trawl net to
enable any trapped turtle escape through a hatch. Imports from
countries that do not have in place a regulatory mechanism will not
be allowed. In simple words it means - ‘No TED, no shrimp’.
Since the Turtle Excluder Device (TED) was first introduced in USA
during mid-80's, research and development to improve TED performance
was continued by the fishing community. Keeping in view the need to
expel the turtles from and to retain fish/shrimp in trawl nets, TEDs
of different shapes and sizes have come up. Now there are six
varieties of TEDs depending upon the grid size, bar spacing and
construction material.