Koroilavesau alarmed with turtle count decline
The Minister for Fisheries Semi Koroilavesau on Monday raised his concerns on the severe decline in the number of sea turtles found in Fiji over the last three decades. However he said some recovery level for each stock had been recorded after three different moratoriums had been placed on sea turtles since 1985 and the Fiji Sea Turtle Recovery Plan had been implemented from 2010.
The current moratorium he said would end on December 31, 2018. “Exemption could be given for traditional protocols like chiefly installation, deaths, etc,” he said. There would be no exemption he said during spawning periods from November to February.
He said in one of his visits to an island, it was said that motorboat owners had injured some turtles in some of their trips which ended up being consumed by the boat owners.
Mr Koroilavesau said female turtles reached maturity at 45 years of age and they had 30 years of reproductive life.
“Just imagine if you slaughter a female turtle that has not reached its maturity age,” he asked. He said reports had been received where turtles were slaughtered, cut in pieces and put in coolers on boats and sold to consumers.
He has appealed to all and especially fishers to honour the moratorium.
Fiji has pledged a voluntary commitment to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14. He said the goal after the moratorium would that by June 2018 a National Sea Turtle Regulations would have been formulated by the Government and the National Sea Turtle Recovery Plan was fully implemented by all stakeholders.
Mr Koroilavesau said there were five of the seven species of turtles in our waters: the Hawksbill, Green, Loggerhead, Leatherback and the Olive Ridley.