Cuba Bans Harvesting of Endangered Sea Turtles

Conservationists praised the resolution, passed January 19, which they say will benefit all the Caribbean's endangered marine turtles - greens, loggerheads, and hawksbills. Greens and loggerheads are considered endangered, while hawksbills are critically endangered, according to the Red List of Threatened Species complied by the IUCN-World Conservation Union.

"For many years, Cuba retained a legal fishery of 500 hawksbills a year, with the hope of being able to trade their shells internationally," said Dr. Susan Lieberman, director of WWF International's Species Programme, which worked with the Cuban and Canadian governments to establish the new policy.

The hawksbill turtle is listed as critically endangered. (Photo courtesy UNEP-WCMC)

The phaseout of the marine turtle fishery in Cuba is the result of a joint effort by WWF and the Cuban Ministry of Fisheries, with financial support from the Canadian International Development Agency, CIDA.

"This far-sighted decision represents an outstanding outcome for Cuba, for the wider Caribbean, and for conservation. Cuba is to be commended for the example it has set in intelligent decisionmaking informed by science and the long term best interests of its people," Lieberman said.

The two fishing communities in southern Cuba that used to harvest marine turtles will be helped to find sustainable economic alternatives with funds and technical assistance. They will modernize their fishing fleets, re-train their residents and engage them in hawksbill turtle protection activities by forming Brigades for the Protection of Marine Turtles, the Cuban government said.

The WWF/CIDA grant of over $US400,000 also will support the Ministry's Centre for Fisheries Research to become a regional hub for marine turtle conservation and research, capitalizing on decades of experience by Cuban scientists.

It will also strengthen the Cuban Fisheries law enforcement group, the Office for Fisheries Inspection, to ensure compliance with the ban.

Along with other marine turtles, hawksbill turtles are threatened by the loss of nesting and feeding habitats, egg collection, entanglement in fishing gear, climate change, and pollution.

But the main threat to the hawksbills comes from continuing illegal trade in tortoiseshell although international trade in marine turtle products has been banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, since 1977.

Juvenile hawksbill turtle on a bed of seaweed (Photo courtesy U.S. National Park Service)

Small in size compared to other marine turtles, hawksbills are famous for their ornate shells, which are dark amber with radiating streaks of brown or black. Their shells have been made into jewelry, combs, eyeglass frames, and tabletops.

The hawksbill turtle is classified as critically endangered after population declines estimated at 80 percent over the last 100 years.

The hawksbill's preference for feeding on sponges means it plays a significant but until recently unappreciated role in the continued health of coral reefs, by opening up new feeding opportunities for some varieties of reef fish, says WWF.

Cuban government agencies that will help enforce the ban are Departments of the Interior, Tourism, Education, Foreign Investment and the Economic Collaboration, and the Department of Science, Tecnology and the Environment.

Nongovernmental organizations involved include the Committees of Defense of Revolucion, the Federation of Cuban Women, the group Cuba Fishing, and the Federation of Sport Fishing.

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