Authorities ramp up efforts to protect sea turtles as deaths on India’s shores continue to mount

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Dead sea turtles keep washing ashore on India’s east coast and environmentalists and authorities are trying frantically to stop the number of 600 dead from getting even higher.

The high number of turtle deaths in Chennai in southern India is most likely due to overfishing just off the coast that may be accidentally trapping the turtles in nets, experts say, sparking discussion and anger in the region over how the deaths could be avoided. But fishers say that tougher conditions — from warmer waters to higher operating costs — has forced them into a corner. Government officials on and off the coast say they have intensified their monitoring of illegal fishing since high amounts of dead turtles started washing up onshore.

It’s the biggest number of sea turtle deaths since 2014, when over 900 olive ridley turtles were found dead on India’s southern shores.

Fishers blame warmer, choppier waters

Fishers in the city say that rough winds and turbulent waters have made it more expensive and difficult to travel too far off the coast.

“With increasing fuel costs, we have to spend close to 500,000 rupees ($5,784) every time we send our trawl boats out,” said M.E. Raghupathi, a resident of Chennai who has been in the fishing business for 52 years. “We worship turtles and it pains us too that so many are dying, but we need to provide for our families too,” he said.

Raghupathi, who was formerly the president of a statewide trawl boat association, said that the technology used in the boats and the nets were designed by government-backed research organizations. But those designs have not been upgraded since the 1960s.

“We will be happy to use any new technology that can help prevent these turtle deaths if they are provided to us,” he said.

Another fisher, K. Bharathi, said that the fish in this region of the Bay of Bengal have dwindled exponentially in the last few decades due to warming water because of climate change and excessive fishing.

“The fish that we used to see here 25 years ago are not there anymore, this is the primary reason why even big trawl boats are coming to areas where they shouldn’t,” he said. “Measures to increase fish resources like setting up artificial coral reefs can help avoid this competition and also indirectly help protect turtles.”

Multiple studies by climate scientists have found that the risks of more intense, unpredictable and frequent cyclones have increased along India’s coastline as a result of global warming.

Turtles protected on paper but not in practice

A local government order was passed in 2016 to stop trawl boats from casting giant nets that sweep up everything on the ocean floor from getting within five nautical miles of the coastline during turtle nesting season. The law also mandates devices known as turtle excluder devices, that can help turtles escape nets.

And government officials on and off the coast have intensified turtle protection activities in recent weeks, said Manish Meena, the city’s wildlife warden.

“We are all on high alert and we’re also trying to sensitize fishers so they release any turtles that they find caught in their nets. All government agencies are on board and are trying to work together to deal with this situation,” he said.

Meena said authorities are also encouraging the use of turtle excluder devices, made of metal bars or mesh and fitted into the neck of a trawl boat’s net.

But Raghupathi said that fish can also escape when they devices are installed on nets, making them economical. “There needs to be other solutions like installing cameras in our nets or something else which doesn’t compromise our already decreasing fish catch,” he said.

Following media reports on the turtle deaths, India’s National Green Tribunal, the country’s highest court for environmental issues, has threatened a complete ban on fishing during turtle nesting season if fishing regulations are not complied with immediately.

Protecting vulnerable species — and fishers

Olive ridley turtles are considered a vulnerable species as they lose their habitats, are subject to marine pollution and can get trapped in fishing nets.

As their eggs need two months to hatch — like most sea turtle species — they’re also threatened by increased land activity on beaches and coastlines, warmer temperatures and light pollution that can disorient infant turtles.

Over 500,000 turtles nest every year on beaches further up India’s east coast in Odisha state — a mass nesting phenomenon that turtle conservationists call Arribada. But only one in about 1,000 turtle hatchlings survive to adulthood.

Supraja Dharini, founder of Tree Foundation, a turtle conservation organization, said turtle conservation can work along fishing practices, as long as they are sustainable.

“What is good for small, artisanal fishers is usually good for the turtles too,” she said.

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