Stop Harvesting Endangered Turtle Eggs in Costa Rica
- by: Animal Advocates
- recipient: President of Costa Rica Laura Chinchilla, Director and Vice-Minister of Environmental Management
Four of the world’s seven species of marine turtles nest on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, the Pacific Green, the Leatherback, the Hawksbill and the Olive Ridley.
In an effort to save the turtle, 20 years ago, Costa Rica created a legal harvest of turtle eggs, but they lack the funds to properly regulate it from illegal poaching- creating an ever-flourishing black market, locally and overseas. Turtle eggs, at least according to local lore, are aphrodisiacs and the demand for them is worldwide.
The strategy to make the harvest legal was that the turtles regularly dig up each others’ eggs, causing destruction not only to those eggs, but, due to bacterial decomposition of the broken eggs, gross contamination of the surrounding sand. By selling the turtle eggs, locals could benefit economically, while protecting the species.
However, real sustainability does not come when a species has found its way onto the illegal black market. And turtles that do survive are at risk from being killed for their meat, choking on plastic bafs, and getting caught in fishing nets.
We ask Costa Rica to return to the originat law, which banned the taking of turtle eggs nationwide in 1966. The Law for the Protection, Conservation and Recuperation of the Marine Turtle Population (Law 8325), was established in 2002 and designed to help protect declining sea turtle numbers, mandates three years of prison for anyone who “kills, hunts, captures, decapitates, or disturbs marine turtles.”
SOURCE:http://coastalcare.org/2011/07/legalized-poaching-turtles-eggs-and-playa-ostional-costa-rica/
President of Costa Rica
Laura Chinchilla
Contact: http://www.presidencia.go.cr/index.php/presidencia/presidenta/escribale-a-la-presidenta
Mr. Ruben Munoz Robles
Director, International Cooperation
Ministry of Environment
Gonzalez Lahaman
San Jose - 10104-1000
Costa Rica
Tel: + 506 22 58 0069
Fax: 011 506 2255-1492
EMail: rmunoz@minaet.go.cr, tirracr@gmail.com
Mrs. Maria Guzman Ortiz
Vice-Minister of Environmental Management
Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications
Front Sacred Heart Church, Barrio Francisco Peralta
San Jose, San Jose - 10104-1000
Costa Rica
Tel: + 506 2248-2149, + 506 2233-4533
Fax: 011 506 2257-0232
EMail: vicegae@minaet.go.cr
Four of the world’s seven species of marine turtles nest on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, the Pacific Green, the Leatherback, the Hawksbill and the Olive Ridley.
In an effort to save the turtle, 20 years ago, Costa Rica created a legal harvest of turtle eggs, but they lack the funds to properly regulate it from illegal poaching- creating an ever-flourishing black market, locally and overseas. Turtle eggs, at least according to local lore, are aphrodisiacs and the demand for them is worldwide.
The strategy to make the harvest legal was that the turtles regularly dig up each others’ eggs, causing destruction not only to those eggs, but, due to bacterial decomposition of the broken eggs, gross contamination of the surrounding sand. B selling the turtle eggs, local could benefit economically, while protecting the species.
However, real sustainability does not come when a species has found its way onto the illegal black market. And turtles that do survive are at risk from being killed for their meat, choking on plastic bafs, and getting caught in fishing nets.
We ask Costa Rica to return to the originat law, which banned the taking of turtle eggs nationwide in 1966. The Law for the Protection, Conservation and Recuperation of the Marine Turtle Population (Law 8325), was established in 2002 and designed to help protect declining sea turtle numbers, mandates three years of prison for anyone who “kills, hunts, captures, decapitates, or disturbs marine turtles.”
SOURCE:http://coastalcare.org/2011/07/legalized-poaching-turtles-eggs-and-playa-ostional-costa-rica/
President of Costa Rica
Laura Chinchilla
Contact: http://www.presidencia.go.cr/index.php/presidencia/presidenta/escribale-a-la-presidenta
Mr. Ruben Munoz Robles
Director, International Cooperation
Ministry of Environment
Gonzalez Lahaman
San Jose - 10104-1000
Costa Rica
Tel: + 506 22 58 0069
Fax: 011 506 2255-1492
EMail: rmunoz@minaet.go.cr, tirracr@gmail.com
Mrs. Maria Guzman Ortiz
Vice-Minister of Environmental Management
Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications
Front Sacred Heart Church, Barrio Francisco Peralta
San Jose, San Jose - 10104-1000
Costa Rica
Tel: + 506 2248-2149, + 506 2233-4533
Fax: 011 506 2257-0232
EMail: vicegae@minaet.go.cr
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