World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

MALDIVESthe 15 000 tourists were estimated to be buying 2000 E. imbricata a year(Frazier, 1980a). According to Moutou (1985a), stuffed marine turtles orshells are on sale everywhere in the Maldives. New legislation to imposesize restrictions on turtle capture in 1977 are not thought to have beennotably effective (N.F. Munch-Petersen in litt , 24 September 1986).Frazier and Frazier (1987) confirmed that a large percentage of carapaces onsale to tourists were smaller than the minimum size limits.Domestic trade Frazier (1980) tabulated prices of various commodities in1976. Meat fetched US$0. 5-1.0 a kg, oil US$0.76 a 1, eggs US$0. 02-0. OAeach, stuffed Hawksbills US$11 . A5-20. 36 , and shell US$6.11 ( C. mydas ) toUS$A0.71 ( E. imbricata ) a kg. Eggs are commonly collected and sold, somebeing taken to Male. On Gaadho (Laam), the eggs are auctioned and theproceeds are put towards village needs, such as the school of the mosque(Frazier and Frazier, 1987).International trade The Maldives has been one of the main sources ofHawksbill shell for the artisan carving industry in Sri Lanka, and hassupplied a variety of other countries (Colton, 1977). In 1977, a law waspassed banning the export of raw tortoiseshell , and allowing only workedmaterial to be exported. This is reflected in the exports of tortoiseshellreported by the Ministry of Fisheries (Table 136) which fell sharply in1978, and apparently ceased in 1980. However, Japanese Customs reports alsoprovide an indication of the export of tortoiseshell from the Maldives toJapan, and these data are also shown in Table 136. No shell was importedprior to 1973, after which imports climbed to 1266 kg in 1978. In 1979there was a sharp fall in the trade volume, possibly reflecting the effectsof the new legislation; however, exports subsequently increased to recordlevels in 1985 and 1986, implying that some way had been found ofcircumventing the export controls. At one time, presumably in the early1980s, shell was exported to Singapore (Kenchington, 1983).Table 136. Weights and values of exports of raw tortoiseshell from theMaldives (data from the Ministry of Fisheries; and imports of raw bekko toJapan (from Japanese Customs reports).Year Exports from Maldiveskg Value (Rf)Imports to Japankg19701971197219731974197519761977197819791980198119821983198419851986680270270156055804110644060301895452022 2607