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By Maryam Omidi
Last week, the ministry of fisheries and agriculture decided to extend the moratorium to ban reef shark fishing across the Maldives and work towards a total ban on all shark exports within a year.
It was a historic decision and one which marine biologists working in the country had been campaigning for, for a number of years.
Yet sceptics rightfully raised the question of enforcement, using the current ban on turtle hunting as an example of the inefficacy of such laws.
Catching or killing any marine turtle species and the sale, import and export or its products has been banned since 1995; a renewal of the moratorium in 2005, added the harvesting of turtle eggs to the prohibition.
"Number one killer"
Despite the ban, it is not uncommon to come across tales of turtle hunting and harvesting of eggs for making omelettes – a tradition in the Maldives.
At Banyan Tree resort, 24-year-old Mohamed Ali openly admitted to his past as a turtle poacher in Laamu atoll. Robert Tomasetti, a marine biologist at the resort, jovially described him as the "number one killer in the atoll".
"We looked for the lowest tide of the moon," said Mohamed, who has converted to a defender of turtles since starting work for the Banyan Tree marine biology lab.
"We would then go in with a diving torch and make a knot with a rope and go down for a dive and put the rope around its neck."
Being the languid creatures that they are, catching them is "easy", he said. Although people in the atoll know turtle hunting is illegal, he said, they "don’t care".
Mohamed said he has even witnessed a magistrate and a police officer feast on turtle meat in the atoll. Stricter laws and enforcement as well as more awareness programmes are needed to ensure the message is clear.
Conservation
It takes decades for turtles to reach maturity and breed, but with the increasing threat of mortality due to human activities such as fishing methods using nets, hunting, egg poaching, pollution and disease, fewer turtles are living long enough to reproduce.
One per cent of hatchlings will survive to adulthood and "half" will die on their way from the beach to the open sea, said Tomasetti. “The main reason turtles are endangered are people.”
To combat the effects of their dwindling population, Banyan Tree began a HeadStart conservation project in 2000. The programme raises a small number of turtles from the six nests on their island in a lagoon pen for two years before releasing them into the wild.
To date, the resort has released more than 350 turtles and each has been fitted with a titanium flipper tag to allow them to be readily identifiable when they return to the Maldives.
Six turtles have been fitted with satellite tracking transmitters to allow the lab to monitor their movements for up to eight months.
Of these six, "One went to the Arabian Sea, one went to Sumatra. Three travelled several thousand kilometres West and then came back to Male' atoll," said Tomasetti. "One was hunted by a fisherman in India."
Enforcement
Abdullah Nasir, permanent secretary of the ministry of fisheries and agriculture, has said the ministry plans for awareness programmes in its budget every year.
With the help of the Marine Research Centre, areas with relatively large turtle populations are identified and these areas are periodically visited.
Harvesting turtle eggs used to be a "countrywide activity", says Nasir, "and so I am sad to say it will take time for us to get over it."
A change in the current laws and regulations as well as more awareness programmes are needed, he adds. "But, I know there are people who consider turtle eggs to be a delicacy."
The ministry takes actions whenever it hears of reports about either turtle hunting or the harvesting of eggs, he says. "It's very difficult for us...perhaps the establishment of local government will help."
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