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

St. Kitts and Nevis Sea Turtles…
tle or the eggs of same found on the shore or within one hundred
yards thereof; or
(f) buy, sell, offer or expose for sale, or have in his possession eggs
of any Green or Loggerhead turtle.
(3) No person shall:
(a) catch or take, or attempt to catch or take, or cause to be caught
or taken at anytime or in any place any Hawksbill turtle
(Eretmochelys imbricata), Olive Ridley turtle (Lepidochelys
olivacea), or Leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) or the
eggs of such turtles; or
(b) buy, sell, offer or expose for sale, or have in his possession the
whole or any portion of Hawksbill, Olive Ridley, or Leatherback
turtles, including the meat, oil, shell or eggs of such turtles.
(4) Any person contravening any of the provisions of these Regulations
is guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon summary conviction
to a fine of $5,000 or to imprisonment of 12 months; and,
in addition thereto, any turtle parts, products or eggs and any boat,
vehicle and/or equipment used in connection with the commission
of an offence specified in Regulation 2 or 3 shall be forfeited to the
Crown save and except that no such forfeiture shall take place in
the event of the owner thereof satisfying the Court that he did not
know of the use thereof in the commission of such offence.
Turtles must be landed alive in order that oversized turtles and protected species can be
released unharmed. Thus, the provision that turtles not be speared is an important one. In addition,
nets should be checked regularly to ensure that ensnared turtles do not drown or become
vulnerable to depredation. It is a recommendation of this Recovery Action Plan that spearguns
be licensed for use in the territorial waters of St. Kitts/Nevis. The draft Fisheries Regulations of
1992 prohibit the use of spearguns by persons who do not first obtain written permission from
the Chief Fisheries Officer. A hawksbill turtle washed up dead on the SEP in 1991 with a spear
hole through its neck (R. Pereira, pers. comm., 1992). In April 1992, Ross University students
speared a turtle in Whitehouse Bay (David Howlett, Kenneth's Dive Ctr, pers. comm., 1992).
Turtles landed legally should be killed as humanely as possible prior to butchering.
4.233 Nesting females
Sea turtles are long-lived and females lay eggs for many years. Adult sea turtles
represent decades of selective survival (sexual maturity is reached for most species in the
Western Atlantic at 20-35 years), they are the most difficult life stage for a population to replace,
and they are (along with subadults just entering their breeding years) the most important life
stage for the survival of a sea turtle population (Crouse et al., 1987; Frazer, 1983, 1989). It is
crucial to remember that, regardless of the expense and care taken to protect sea turtle habitat,
eggs and juvenile life stages, it is inevitable that we will loose the turtle populations that nest in
St. Kitts/ Nevis if we continue to eliminate our breeding animals. It is an urgent recommenda-
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