Anonymous
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Mexican turtles disappear to US, Japanese gourmands
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030915/...
Sep 15, 2003
LA PAZ, Mexico (AFP) - US and Japanese gourmands pay 50 dollars a kilogram (25 dollars a pound) for turtle flesh, and poor Mexicans provide it,
killing 45,000 of the threatened animals each year.
Authorities in the Mexican Pacific state of Baja California turn their heads, environmentalists say, as poachers collect the eggs, the turtles and
their shells.
On top of that, turtles are lost accidentally to shrimp nets and to the destruction of their habitat, said Javier Villavicencio, head of the
"California Turtle Group."
One man on Mexico's Pacific Coast told AFP that he alone had poached 20,000 kilograms (44,000 pounds) of turtle meat each week. That works out to 500
turtles each week, Francisco Fisher Blanco said.
"For two decades, I was a poacher and for 13 years, I supplied the United States with nearly 20 tonnes a week," he said.
"Wildcoast" director Wallace Nichols said the top markets for turtle meat are the United States and Japan.
The prices paid in the wealthy countries attracts unemployed Mexicans to traffic in the amphibians.
Fisher Blanco was caught, spent some time in a halfway house and, after a talking-to from the California turtle group, decided to mend his ways.
However, he would not reveal his fences.
"That I can't say because they would kill me.
"There's a lot of money behind that, but I can say that officials at all levels of government are involved in trafficking and consuming turtles," he
said.
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Anonymous
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Caption for photo in above post:
Hundreds of sea turtles' shells dry up in the sun on a beach in Baja California, Mexico. Around 45,000 turtles are poached for their meat each
year.(AFP/Pedro Juarez)
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Stephanie Jackter
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I have a hard time believing this article
I know the poaching goes on, but I believe it's the Mexican market that's still alive and well and wanting turtle meat. I have never been aware of
anyone eating sea turtle in the United States or any restaurant selling it. But in Mexico, there's somebody on every corner wanting a bowl of Caguama
stew. It's considered a staple in many seaside villages and demand is still high even though people are begged not to eat it. - Stephanie
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Ski Baja
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Illegal Items
You don't hear about the politicians and wealthy peoples fondness for cocaine in the U.S. either. But I am pretty sure they are still doing it.
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JESSE
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I wouldn't blame the Japanese or others for this, Mexicans kill Tourtles for domestic consumption not for export, theres a huge market for the meat
and the eggs here in our own nation.
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Mike Humfreville
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An Excerpt from Our Recent Visit to Laguna San Ignacio
"...Rubi launches into a very informative tutorial about her position in the scattered village here. She is trained in conservation and protection of
endangered species here in Laguna San Ignacio. Her husband and brother-in-law also work to educate the locals on the concepts of preservation and
protection of those elements of our environment that are at risk. How cool, I'm thinking, that this far into the outback the word is getting out.
These three have been born into and re-integrated with the villagers and carried forward a mission to inform and introduce change into family
traditions that have carried on for perhaps centuries, to help local families understand how select habits can damage their futures, can have a
negative influence. How far we have progressed, I reflect, awestruck. It's an easy deal to sell a city dweller on not eating some food they never
thought about anyway. But to convince a family that has made a living and fed themselves for generations by capturing some animal that has become
endangered that it would serve the world better if they gave up their pursuit? That's a difficult challenge.
Rubi sparkles in her conversation, telling us the impact and cooperative influences she and her kind have had on the locals, how most folks now
recognize the need to protect the environment and the endangered. She excitedly cites incident after incident where the rural community is working
toward a common concurred objective. Mary Ann, Suzanne and I are touched with the moment. On the drive back to San Ignacio Rubi and her world dominate
our conversation, rattled somewhat by the nasty washboard surface..."
If your family is hungry you will do whatever it takes to feed them. When the world wants badly what you can sell and you need money, you'll do what
it takes. Eliminate the starvation and poverty and solve the problem. That's impossible, I know.
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Ski Baja
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Impossible
Mother Nature works in strange ways. And these people are fairly natural. And super intelligent when it comes to the earth.
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