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

St. Kitts and Nevis Sea Turtles…
tentions in developing this Action Plan are to (1) summarize the status and distribution of local
sea turtle populations, (2) examine threats to their survival, and (3) recommend conservation
actions to be taken on their behalf. The consensus is that sea turtles in St. Kitts/Nevis are fewer
today than at any time during the twentieth century. In order to promote the survival of remaining
stocks, a national Sea Turtle Conservation Programme is herein proposed (section 4.6).
Before proceeding with the main body of the text, the authors would like to give special
recognition to the fifth and sixth grade students at Estridge Primary School in St. Kitts. Their
environmental studies teacher, Peace Corps Volunteer Diana Honebrink, devoted class time in
October 1992 to a discussion of sea turtle biology and the concept of a national recovery plan for
endangered sea turtles. The students then wrote a Recovery Action Plan of their own. They
worked together in small groups, each with a specific section of the plan as their responsibility.
The following text, entitled Estridge Primary School Recovery Action Plan for Sea Turtles in St.
Kitts and Nevis, reflects a remarkable grasp of the subject matter. It also eloquently reminds us
that we do not inherit the earth from our parents, we only borrow it from our children.
INTRODUCTION: The sea turtles are dying out and soon they will be extinct.
People are killing them for their meat and shells, and sometimes killing
them for fun. People also take the female turtle's eggs. If people take the
eggs all the time, soon all turtles will die out. People are killing the big
leatherback turtles so they can make oil. We need to save the turtles so that
their populations will increase.
BIOLOGY: Green turtles live in the sea. They eat sea grass, are coloured
yellow and green, sleep in coral reefs, and do not have a pointed face like the
hawksbill turtle does. Hawksbill turtles live in the sea. They have a very
funny-shaped nose and a beak like a hawk. They eat all kinds of different sea
things. Leatherbacks live in the sea. They have a soft back and eat jellyfish.
THREATS TO SEA TURTLES: The worst threats are (1) killing the turtles
so that soon there will be no more of them, (2) taking the eggs so that no
young will hatch, (3) destroying the sea turtle's habitat so that there will not
be any place for them to live, (4) throwing garbage into the sea and then the
sea turtles they might eat the garbage and become extinct, (5) poisoning the
sea with oil, (6) troubling the young turtles after the eggs hatch.
SOLUTIONS TO THREATS FACING SEA TURTLES: (1) Protect the
turtles -- please stop killing the turtles when they come to lay their eggs and
protect all ages of sea turtles, including the eggs; don't trouble the eggs. (2)
Protect important habitat -- stop polluting the water, stop driving your vehicle
on the sand, stop taking away the sand from the beach, put signs on the
beaches that say "Please stop digging up the sand", stop building hotels on
the beaches, put signs near the sea that say "Don't pull up the sea grass", don't
throw garbage in the sea because it can harm sea turtles, don't throw oil in the
sea water because it can kill sea turtles, don't dig in the sand because there
can be eggs in the sand and you can destroy the eggs.
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