Our Turtle Protection Team has started work. We have heard that six turtles have already been killed along the coast. I put out an appeal for help, and some men have kindly stepped up to help with some funds. I have sent these funds over and now the Team is hard at work patrolling the coast and protecting nesting females, and their eggs.
This article by the BBC states that two thirds of the turtles that appear on the beaches are killed.
It shows a picture of some men dragging a leatherback off the beach with a tractor.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/843082.stm
For me this is very upsetting, and this approach is one we constantly face when we try to protect these animals.
The article states that 6 new sanctuaries are being set up along the coast.
I am trying to set up a sanctuary along a 20 km stretch of coast in the Volta region of Ghana.
If you would like to help save these turtles, please have a look at the website and get in touch with me.
I need your help! I am struggling to do this on my own.
Leatherback turtles, which weigh up to 650 kilograms, can eat up to 70% of their body weight in a day. That is a huge amount of jellyfish. As the link below shows, there has been an explosion of the jellyfish population in most of the world’s oceans. Protecting turtles also protects fish.
“Sometimes we’ll catch 4,000 or 5,000 pounds of jellyfish. They spray all around. We get stung,” fisherman Ryan Rogers.
We are finding the same thing off the coast of Ghana. Local fishing nets are pulling in increasing numbers of jellyfish. We highlight this as part of our education effort to encourage people not to kill the turtles. People here can see the direct impact that a jellyfish explosion has on their catch. Local people depend on the fishing, and so keeping turtles alive also keeps down the populations of jellyfish. Jellyfish eat small and baby fish, so have a dramatic effect on the fish population.
Look at these little beauties. This one ended up in the lagoon instead of the sea so we popped it over the beach to swim in the big waves.
Dzita Turtle Protection 