World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

ST LUCIAForaging sites Bacon (1981) reported frequent foraging by both adultsand juveniles at Soufriere, Choiseul, Anse Sable, Micoud and from Gros Iletto Anse Lavoutte. Murray (1984) recorded ten individuals foraging at AnseChastenet and five foraging around the Maria Islands.EXPLOITATIONCommodity The major products obtained were meat and eggs from the GreenTurtle and meat, eggs and shell from the Hawksbill (Butler in litt .IS September 1986). According to Murray (1984), sea turtles have been asignificant part of the diet of the coastal inhabitants of St Lucia.Hunting intensity Murray (1984) reported three landing sites forturtles: an estimated five Green Turtles were landed at Castries inSeptember; four Green Turtles and one Hawksbill at Canaries; and four GreenTurtles at Vieux Fort in September and November. On Grand Anse Beach, oneof the main nest sites, four turtles were killed by poachers in 1986 and tenin 1987. It is estimated that this represented half of the nesting femalesin 1987 (Bucknal, 1988).Historical trends According to Murray (1984), the turtle industry ofSt Lucia began in about 1937 with live Green Turtles being shipped toEngland and the USA. After 1941, shipments consisted predominantly of driedGreen Turtle products. Host of the trade from 1949 onwards depended onturtles imported from Aves Island, a small, off-lying island belonging toVenezuela. As many as three hundred turtles would be imported, underspecial licence during the closed season in St Lucia, with a proportion ofthe meat being sold locally until 1975. Until 1979, most of the turtlesimported from Aves Island were shipped to Hamburg, F.R. Germany. Rebel(1974, cited in Murray, 1984) quoted landing estimates for 1969 as being17 046 kg of Green Turtle and 10 909 kg of Hawksbill. The establishment ofa permanent garrison on Aves Island is said to have finally brought thisunauthorised exploitation under control (Carr et al , 1982).Hunting methods Turtles were caught at sea in nets and some were turnedon the nesting beaches (Murray, 1984).Domestic trade There was some domestic tradeproducts (Butler in litt. . 15 September 1986).in turtle meat and shellInternational trade St Lucia acceded to CITES on 15 December 1982.CITES annual reports for the period 1977-1985 recorded exports to Britain ofone body and one shell of C. mydas ; exports to the USA of one Cheloniidaeshell and one C. mydas shell; and imports from Hong Kong of two bodies ofE. imbricata . Japanese Customs reports show imports of raw tortoiseshell,and these are given in Table 190.Table 190. Imports of raw bekko (kg) from St Lucia reported in JapaneseCustoms Statistics.1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986345 288 332 489 349 152 143 267 270 362494