Black Sea Turtles Return To Baja California, But So Do Poachers
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/23/black-sea-turtles-b...
From Dr. Wallace J. Nichols:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wallace-j-nichols
Every expedition begins well before the official start and ends far after its conclusion. This is especially the case with The Black Turtle Project,
an unfolding and evolving effort to join conservation photography, communication and biology. I can assure you that this project began long ago and
will live on into the future. The past two weeks in Baja are just the start of a collaborative effort that will transpire over the coming year and
document the nascent and emerging success story of the black sea turtle's return to the Pacific coast of the Americas.
For myself, the expedition links back to graduate school and a decision to -- against the odds, against my advisors' wishes and with no funding to
speak of -- focus several decades of my life on sea turtle research and conservation. For conservation photographer and Associate Fellow of the
International League of Conservation Photographers, Neil Ever Osborne, this project also extends back into his past and includes his decision to pick
up a camera and set aside a career as a biologist. For our colleagues in Mexico, from Michoacan to Baja California, this project represents decades of
committed conservation efforts, dedication in the face of despair, thousands of all-nighters and -- most-recently -- some signs of hope. The story of
the black turtle is about people: poachers, children, scientists, artists, fishers, politicians, teachers, conservationists, photographers,
narco-traffickers, guides, leaders and followers, musicians. What I've come to realize is that all of the people in this story wear several of those
hats, simultaneously or sequentially.
In the late 1990's the location in Baja that we are visiting now was one of our research sites. We caught black turtles here, tagged them, measured
and weighed them and then released them back into the bay. We learned that young turtles caught here would return to the same spot, even if released
in another part of the bay. But eventually poachers wiped out all of the sea turtles at our site, making our research impossible. So we moved our
efforts to a different part of the bay.
Alejandro Osuna was one of those sea turtle hunters. With his father he caught and cooked sea turtles right where we are camped now, in the
mangrove-lined Estero Los Cuervos, a branch of Bahia Magdalena. Now Alejandro is our captain and guide, one of the local leaders working to bring back
the turtles. When we arrived to our former site to set our research nets we weren't sure what we might find. Had the turtles come back, just like many
other locations along the Baja coast or was the area still recovering. The plan was to set out our nets for 24 hours to find out if Estero Los Cuervos
could be a viable monitoring site, as it was so many years ago. Our answer came more quickly than expected, but not using the techniques we
anticipated. At our site we found that a net was already there. It was an illegal net belonging to poachers who had set it for turtles. Alejandro
wasn't pleased.
We set to work pulling up the net and immediately removed a 48 cm juvenile black turtle. Another hour in the net and the turtle would have been dead.
Two juvenile California halibut, a stingray, guitarfish and an undersize lobster followed. All went back into the bay alive, except for the turtle.
This beauty had to wait for us to gather valuable data and apply a small tag to its rear flippers. Alejandro decided that we would send a message to
the poachers by twisting the net onto itself, requiring a frustrating process of detangling. The tides also did their work on the poorly positioned
net, resulting in a big mess of mesh. We kept an eye on the gear through the night and set our own net which resulted in a second turtle. This one a
near adult sized female.
The good news: the black turtles are back.
The bad news: so are the poachers.
The better news: the turtles have strong local allies now.
There's still a long road ahead for the black turtle, but at least we are on the road. That's the kind of story this is: hopeful, heartbreaking,
timeless and occasionally unbelievable.
--
Images courtesy of Neil Ever Osborne.
Photo below: Osuna and Nichols remove a black turtle from an entanglement net at Estero Los Cuervos.
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