Maritime History: Poor fishing practices hurting marine life
Lately, more turtles have been found dead and washed ashore along the Akassa coastal areas. Locals complain that many of the turtles suffered entanglement in nets used by fishing trawlers. The turtle conservation centre has complained that poor fishing practices are causing marine mammal entanglement and trawlers deliberately cut off sea turtles that enter their net while dragging, instead of releasing them appropriately.
Sea turtles hardly survive when their flippers are cut while fishing nets are dragged. Without care, they are returned to the water. Each time the entanglement happens, the turtles’ flippers are injured and continue to cut until the turtles die.
When such turtles are found by fishermen who do not understand the importance of marine life conservation, they take them for meals.
Raynus Ebiegberi, the conservationist in charge of the centre in Akassa, Bayelsa, found at least three large marine turtles that had suffered the same fate of having their flippers deeply cut.
“I have counted three dead turtles in the last three months,” Ebiegberi said. “But each turtle that dies reduces the population of sea turtles. If you identify one turtle today, it is significant, because you want to know what led to its death. If it resulted from a fishing trawler, you can imagine how many of the turtles would be found in the sea that you may not be able to identify. These just floated to the shoreline where you can see them. What about the ones that sank and didn’t float? It is a bad story for us at such times.”
He believes that a stakeholders’ meeting involving the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and the trawler owners would be a step in the right direction to speaking with one voice, in efforts to save the turtles.
The Nesting Areas?
The turtle nesting areas have been disturbed by economic activities such as the regular fish markets by the beach areas. The three Islands; Cape Formosa (Eastern Island), the Central Island, and the Fish Town Island, each has long beaches attached to them. They are nesting grounds for green turtles and the leatherback. But the Central Island has more of the nesting area (Where there is a turtle beach). The viewing centre is built there. In some areas, the beach distance is more than in others.
“Where the coastal communities carry out activities, the beaches are very busy, except when the tide is covering the sandy areas. And the noise from the bike scares the turtles from the area. The three islands are damaged by erosion and others by economic activities,” Ebiegberi said.
Meanwhile, the centre has discovered a new beach where thousands of birds were found, sleeping in one place. They also saw thousands of white crabs in the same location.
Photo Caption: Sea turtle entangled by a lost fishing net.
Credit: Raynus Ebiegberi
*This article was first published in Onepage Africa Magazine
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