Sea Turtles in Portland

So as you read in my blog back last year I had the opportunity to witness baby turtles making their way to sea for the first time.  This was something that I really enjoyed and is still one of the highlights of my Jamaica experience thus far. 

Picture from Definitive Caribbean Blog 

PEPA, the organization that I am volunteering with, is assisting in a turtle monitoring project in Portland this year.  The monitoring season will span from May-October/ Nov.  This project is led by Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) and will be focusing on gathering nesting data and also educating the community we are working in about the laws and why they shouldn’t be poaching turtles.

We had our fist meeting the weekend before last and I was surprised at the reactions of the community members.  Sea turtles have been protected in Jamaica for many years, yet people are either not informed of the laws, or they are ignorant to the fact that the laws apply to them.  Some of the people realize that it is illegal, but admitted in eating turtle anyways. 

In the question and answering portion of the presentation, the question “why should we not eat them?” came up.  The answer is that they play a important role in their ecosystem, and often it is those species that we cannot see their full importance until they are gone.  I thought that was a good point.  Jamaica has a lot of problems with their reefs and their fisheries, so it was explained what the different sea turtles eat and how that affects the reef ecosystem.  These animals are not only very beautiful animals in the water but they play a huge role. 

I came to the conclusion that this project will be interesting and I look forward to spending some early morning looking for tracks and I am predicting I will have many sea turtle conversations in the year to come.