Reptiles
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GENEVA, VISAKHAPATNAM, WASHINGTON D.C.––The World Trade Organization ruled on April 6 that the U.S. in barring the import of shrimp from nations whose fleets are not required to use turtle excluder devices on their nets is violating the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs. |
Photograph of sea turtles trapped in shrimp net courtesy of Caribbean Conservation Corporation |
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WTO held that even under the international treaty that allows exceptions
to GATT rules to protect the environment, the U.S. may not force other
nations to safeguard endangered species. The WTO particularly objected
to the part of the U.S. TED law which requires TED to be used in all
shrimping, not just shrimping done for export to the U.S.
U.S. trade representative Charlene Barshefsky said the ruling “does not affect our efforts to protect endangered sea turtles.” As many as 150,000 sea turtles a year are drowned in shrimp nets not equipped with TED. But Barshefsky did not explain how the U.S. can continue to prevent foreign shrimpers from competing unfairly with U.S. shrimpers who by law must use TED. Hoping to avoid the WTO verdict, the U.S. has funded the installation of TED on the nets of shrimpers from more than three dozen other nations. Shrimp from 17 of those nations may now enter the U.S. The WTO ruled in response to a protest filed jointly by India, Thailand, Pakistan, and Malaysia. Trade representatives of those nations’ governments rejoiced, arguing that the TED requirement is unfair to their impoverished fishers. But the nations’ conservationists joined in the dismay of U.S. colleagues––especially in India. The 1982 Orissa Marine Fishing Regulation Act prohibits trawling within three miles of the Orissa coast, a major sea turtle hatching area, and requires the use of TED on trawl nets. However, S.K. Patnaik of the Wildlife Institute of India protested in a March 1998 letter to the Orissa government, there is a “complete lack of enforcement,” which brought the deaths of more than 10,000 turtles, he said, from December 1997 through February 1998. Further, Patnaik charged, of 20,000 turtles estimated to be near the Devi river mouth, 7,300 had been killed, including 1,000 in just days during mid-March. |
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| Sea turtle protector Manop Kidsarng issued a similar warning. “An alarming number of sea turtles have been caught for consumption and killed by trawls and longliners,” he told the Bangkok Post. “Villagers have complained of seeing too many dead turtles on beaches and of fishers selling turtle eggs to restaurant operators and also selling dead turtles to craftsmen who use their shells to make ornaments,” Manop continued. Manop heads an organization which collects eggs before poachers can find them, hatches them, and then releases the hatchings. About 1,000 turtle eggs collected in October 1997 produced 90 young turtles for release this spring. | 
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Photograph of ridley sea turtle and eggs courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service. |
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| Six
of the seven marine turtle species inhabit southern Asian waters.
Malaysian minister of agriculture Datuk Sulaiman Daud acknowledged in
mid-March that the four leatherback varieties and olive ridleys may be
extinct in Malaysia within six years––but endorsed the
Malaysian government claim that the shrimping season and the turtle
migration season do not coincide, and that therefore Malaysian shrimpers
are not responsible for turtle declines.
In February, Malaysian fisheries minister Rabihah Mahmood promised at a release of hawksbill and green sea turtle hatchlings from the Pantal Kerachut Turtle Conservation and Hatchery Centre, opened in 1995, that she would introduce legislation to increase the punishment of turtle egg and hatchling poachers. The hatchery has recorded 112 turtle landings over the past three years, resulting in about 3,000 eggs hatched. “Rabihah said laws to protect turtles from becoming extinct had already been enforced in Terengganu, Pahang, Sabah, and Sarawak,” wrote Derrick Vinesh of the Malaysian Star. Sarawak, however, has barely 5% as many sea turtles now as it had 30 years ago. The other populations are equally precarious. In mid-March, Malaysia designated Pulau Upeh island as a turtle sanctuary and ecotourism destination. A local resort was authorized to collect turtle eggs for incubation at the Pantal Kerachut hatchery. In mid-March, Malaysia designated Pulau Upeh island as a turtle sanctuary and ecotourism destination. A local resort was authorized to collect turtle eggs for incubation at the Pantal Kerachut hatchery. In the U.S., once highly endangered Kemp ridley sea turtles appear to be making a significant comeback since TED use became mandatory for Gulf Coast shrimpers in 1989. But the rising population also has attracted aggressive poaching and revenge killing by frustrated fishers. In 1997, a record 523 sea turtles of various kinds were found dead along the Texas coast, but only 11 were found dead in March. This year, 56 were found dead in March––and about a dozen had reportedly been butchered. Wildlife agencies, conservation groups, and fishing and shrimping organizations posted rewards totaling $50,000 for the arrest and conviction of the culprits. |
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Red tides probably killed the most Texas turtles last year. But 74 turtles found in April 1997 were drowned in nets by shrimpers who weren’t properly using TED, according to an Earth Island Institute press release. |
Photograph of Kemp ridley sea turtle courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife Department |
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