September 2011    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 26, No. 9   What's this?

Pity the Sea Turtle

from the September, 2011 issue of Undercurrent  

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While endangered green and loggerhead sea turtles are cherished and protected in some places, they're considered as poachable food and trophies in many countries that divers visit. A roundup of recent incidents showed the highs and lows sea turtles face worldwide.

While a New Zealand woman has made a life's work of saving Tonga's endangered green turtles, Methodist ministers make meals of them. Jo Kupu has rescued 600 turtles in the last decade, buying them at the local market and releasing them. But when fishermen, noted that the arrival of mating turtles coincided with a Wesleyan Church conference last spring, they netted 14 live turtles, shipped them to the conference site to lie in the sun on their backs, awaiting their fate. By the time Kupu came to rescue them, 10 had had been served up in the Methodists' dining room. She rescued the remaining four, but one died soon after being returned to the sea. With breeding programs in Tahiti, Samoa and Vanuatu, green turtles are starting to return to Tonga, but the law is vague over whether they are protected....