Sea Turtle Recovery Action Plan for St. Kitts and Nevis - WIDECAST

CEP Technical Report No. 17
They are the green (Chelonia mydas), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), leatherback (Dermochelys
coriacea) and, rarely, the loggerhead (Caretta caretta) (Figure 3). Long-time residents
remember the British custom of the Town Crier announcing the catch of a turtle and its
impending slaughter for market. Mr. Douglas Yearwood recalled this rhyme as he had heard it
as a young boy growing up in St. Kitts:
Fine and fat, fine and fat --
Green-back turtle will be slaughtered in the public market
tomorrow morning, at J. W. Adam's stall.
Fine and fat, fine and fat --
Six pounds for one dollar,
Ready cash, Noooo credit!
The catch of a turtle was not an everyday occurrence, and the practice of announcing the kill
served to alert the community that the delicacy would soon be available. Following the
enactment of conservation legislation in 1948, the habit of publicly announcing the catch served
the additional purpose of discouraging fishermen from bringing turtles in illegally during the
closed season. Cecil Byron, now Chief Magistrate in Nevis, recalls clearly a similar chant recited
in Nevis when sea turtles were to be offered in the public market. The meat was cheaper than
beef and comparable in price to pork and fish. In the 1960's the public announcements were
discarded as "colonial and old-fashioned" (Douglas Yearwood, pers. comm., 1992).
While the Town Crier was familiar in urban areas, such as Basseterre, the catch of a turtle
was not publicly announced in more rural areas of St. Kitts or Nevis. A turtle was not considered
unusual in the coastal villages; indeed, turtles were typically part of a fisherman's haul. Ralph
Wilkins (Assistant Fisheries Officer), who grew up in rural Sandy Point (St. Kitts) in the
1950-60's, recalls that it was commonplace to store sea turtles communally beneath those houses
in the village that were constructed on stilts. Turtles were butchered as buyers were available.
The Sunday morning meal was traditionally one of turtle meat and eggs, the latter rolled in flour
and spices and fried into fritters. Similarly, turtle fishermen and older residents in Nevis confirm
that the practice of "stockpiling" turtles under elevated houses or other usable structures was the
norm. The turtles were common and it was not atypical to bring in more than could be
immediately consumed. They would survive many days on their backs if kept shaded. There
appears to be a general consensus amongst knowledgeable residents that the 1970's brought a
noticeable decline in stocks, both at sea and on the nesting beaches. Long-time divers agree that
turtles at sea are today both fewer and smaller. The beaches of the Southeast Peninsula were
described to the authors as "desolate" compared to the number of eggs laid there 20 years ago.
It is unfortunate that there are no historical records available regarding the number of
fishermen involved in the turtle fishery or their annual catch. In a report prepared for the Second
Western Turtle Symposium, Wilkins and Barrett (1987) concluded that relatively few fishermen
had actively pursued sea turtles in recent years; of roughly 650 active fishermen, "only about 40"
were engaged in the turtle industry at the time of their writing. Barrett (1987) reported the total
catch in 1986-87 to be about 110 turtles (mainly greens and hawksbills) and the average weight
of turtles landed to be about 65 lb (30 kg). The following year, during the 1987-88 open season,
only "eight fishermen [in Nevis were] directly engaged in the [turtle] fishing, operating 10 nets
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