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

St. Kitts and Nevis Sea Turtles…
were used as toy boats for children. By the 1970's it was clear to anyone paying attention that
turtles were smaller, and they were getting rare (K. Samuel, pers. comm., 1992).
The beaches of the Southeast Peninsula have always been particularly good nesting
habitat. Campbell Evelyn (former Chairman, Conservation Commission) and Oliver Spencer
(Old Road Fisherman's Cooperative) recall "lots" of nesting on these beaches, especially on the
Caribbean and terminus (Narrows) shorelines. In 1968-1970, it was possible to walk in the sea
grass along the shoreline of Cockleshell Bay and collect huge conchs in knee-deep water. There
were turtle nests "everywhere". Mosquito Beach, too, was "famous for turtles", both hawksbill
and green. Diving in Mosquito Bay in the 1970's, Spencer remembers multiple turtle nets set
offshore. In addition to frequent nesting on the terminus beaches of Mosquito, Cockleshell, and
Banana Bays (Figure 5), Evelyn estimates that there were commonly as many as 35 (and up to
75) green turtle nests on South Friar's Bay at any one time. This is particularly telling because
green turtles are today the rarest of all the sea turtles that nest in St. Kitts and Nevis. Evelyn
describes the Peninsula beaches today as "desolate". Since the peninsula lacked a road until very
recently, the majority of sea turtles in recent decades were taken by netting. Nevertheless, it is
also true that gravid females and eggs were taken from the nesting beaches by fishermen
traveling to the peninsula by boat.
Contemporary data: Meylan (1983) reported that sea turtle populations in St. Kitts were
considered by most residents to be declining. The following text is taken from her account. Net
fishermen complained about a reduction in annual catch. Catch rates for fishermen at the time of
her writing were on the order of 10-20 per year. One turtle fisherman at Dieppe Bay used to
catch 50 turtles per year in the early 1960's; in 1979, he caught a total of four green turtles and
hawksbills, and one leatherback. He implied that he had exerted equal effort during both
periods, although this is a difficult point to establish. About ten people on the island were
actively setting turtle nests at the time of Meylan's writing. None were exclusively dependent on
this for their livelihood, but the meat and income were undoubtedly an important contribution to
their subsistence. Most turtles caught were immature greens. The meat (all species, with
leatherback least preferred) was sold in many villages and occasionally in the public market in
Basseterre, as well as to hotels. The price in 1980 was US$ 0.80/kg; it had increased to US$
1.60/kg by 1983 [N.B. US$ 1.00 = EC$ 2.70 in October 1992]. Turtle eggs were also eaten, but
rarely sold. Leatherback oil was widely used medicinally.
Meylan (1983) reported that there was "limited information" on changes in population
levels of marine turtles in Nevis. A tortoiseshell buyer in Charlestown reported a decrease in the
amount of tortoiseshell he was able to purchase from fishermen on the island -- from 136 kg/yr
in 1975 to 91 kg/yr in 1980. Inasmuch as hunting pressure increased during this period, a
decline in the hawksbill population may have occurred. The status of green turtles around Nevis
was reported as "unknown" by Meylan (1983). She indicated that at least a dozen people, most
of whom lived in Hanley's Road, Bath Village, and Newcastle, fished for turtles with tangle nets
in order to supplement their incomes and diets; none depended solely on turtle fishing for their
livelihood. While there was considerable fluctuation from year to year, the average annual catch
reported by Nevis fishermen was 5-15 turtles, mostly green turtles. When abundant, green turtles
were shipped live on the ferry or the "lighters" to the public market at Basseterre, St. Kitts. As in
St. Kitts, but apparently to a much lesser extent, oil derived from the leatherback was used in
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