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

CEP Technical Report No. 17
sea turtle brochure. Since 1991, Karen Eckert (Executive Director, WIDECAST) has given more
than two dozen slide shows to audiences in St. Kitts and Nevis, typically sponsored by the NHCS
or SCHS. Adults and school children have been targeted, and both groups have responded with
long sessions of animated questions. Radio and television interviews have also aired.
The message has found its way into local business and community service programmes.
For example, the Turtle Beach Bar and Grill on the Southeast Peninsula requested assistance
from WIDECAST in designing an informative sea turtle exhibit (poster, photos, log book for
sightings) now displayed at the restaurant and popular with guests. The Librarian of the Nevis
Public Library has asked WIDECAST to provide a variety of educational materials and games in
order that the topic of the 1992 annual Summer Library Programme can be "Endangered Sea
Turtles of St. Kitts and Nevis". The three-week summer programme will serve several hundred
community children of all age groups.
Churches have also become involved in the essential work of community environmental
awareness. For example, in 1990 during Environmental Awareness Week and again on World
Environment Day in June 1992, the Responsive Prayers read at Gingerland Methodist Church
included the following lines:
Leader:
All:
Leader:
All:
You gave us sandy beaches and we were greedy and raped them.
Lord forgive us....
And show us a new way.
You gave us fish and turtles for food and we exploited them and
cared not whether they replenish. Lord forgive us....
And show us a new way.
As early as December of 1981, the NHCS published a notice in the local press in an
attempt to discourage the harvesting of juvenile and egg-bearing lobsters and turtles. "This
announcement appeared weekly for a period of about three months and was the first attempt by
any local organization to nationally address the problem of conservation of marine resources"
(Skerritt, 1982). As the Lead Organization for WIDECAST in Nevis, the NHCS remains very
active on behalf of turtles. EcoNews and The Environmentalist, both published by the NHCS,
feature regular articles on the endangered status of sea turtles and how the community can become
more involved in their conservation. The NHCS has plans to construct a permanent airport
display which will include sea turtle information, as well as a "traveling display" to rotate among
interested local businesses (such as banks and medical offices) that will focus on natural resource
conservation. The Society will continue its history of writing issue-letters to merchants, restaurants
and hotels, sponsoring radio announcements on contemporary marine issues, and hosting
public seminars. Through WIDECAST, NHCS has requested several hundred copies of the Center
for Marine Conservation's "Sea Turtle Colouring Book" for distribution to primary schools.
In January 1989, the NHCS sent a letter to Nevis restaurant owners highlighting several
matters of concern, including the endangered status of sea turtles. The letter read, in part: "The
offering of turtle on the menus of local hotels is a serious concern. Sea turtle species are
endangered throughout the world and Nevis is no exception. Concerned groups throughout the
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