Here is the flier and a link to it online:
One can imagine there will be a variety of perspectives surrounding this issue. Here is one, and we'd like to invite others via the comment section.
The following is from the email listserv CTURTLE* by Peter Bennett (author of numerous books and publications on turtles and the website Turtle Trax, www.turtles.org), and is posted here with his permission:
Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:54:32 -0400
From: Peter Bennett <honu@turtles.org>
I'm copying this to everyone who has written us in the past few days about this issue, or has been copied in correspondence.
Sylvia [WPRFMC] did ask permission to use our images. Under our copyright policy, she didn't have to and we appreciated the courtesy. We reserve the right to disallow usage that we feel is detrimental to the honu, but we don't believe that this qualifies.
I disagree that the poster supports hunting. It does leave no doubt that harvesting will be considered as an option, but that is not support.
There is no question that the recovery of the honu has been a spectacular success. They have become so plentiful that, regardless of the truth, it is easy to see why people conclude that some reefs have reached carrying capacity.
In our area [West Maui] the honu have begun feeding throughout the day. We count fewer honu resting on the reef, and our snorkel/dive surveys have found that the foragers are competing for a diminishing supply of food. It is tempting to reason that this is happening throughout the Islands, thus explaining at least in part the increase of reports of daytime foraging along the shorelines.
Discussion of a harvest is therefore inevitable. Even those opposed to a cull should support a forum such as this one. If there are solid reasons why a hunt should not be approved, then there shouldn't be fear of an open and honest debate. WesPac is providing an opportunity to put forward and explain these reasons. In fact, opponents of hunt should welcome the chance to demonstrate why such a thing is unacceptable.
Our own philosophy on this matter--which sometimes surprises people--is expressed in The Book of Honu (p. 125):
Our affection for the honu means that of course we don't want to see them hunted. If, however, their numbers have recovered to the point where a regulated harvest would not threaten the overall population, then we find it hard to oppose. Our objections would be strictly emotional, not scientific. We'd insist that such a hunt be strictly controlled and that safeguards be put in place to prevent hunting in areas where human contact has acclimated the turtles. If these conditions met, we wouldn't like the idea, but we'd be forced to accept it.
Thanks to all of you who thought our opinion was important enough to bring this to our attention.
Thoughts? Post them in the comments.
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1 comment:
Peter Bennett's philosophy shows wisdom and sensitivity in my opinion. As an omnivore myself, I have to reconcile my interest and frankly love of critters with the fact that I have consumed some of them; although typically not individuals I had actually killed.
Therein I think lies a great gap for most of us who can on one hand enjoy the sight of nature and life and on the other hand sit at a dining table and enjoy the bounty nature has provided but with the process unseen and not participated in.
In the movie, "Temple Grandin" I was impressed with a comment credited to Temple and to paraphrase, Nature can be cruel but we don't need to be. This was in reference to the cattle industry and the slaughter of cows.
Should it come to pass that the honu population is to be culled, one could hope, if not insist, that the process be handled in such a manner that shows respect and minimizes the stress and suffering of those turtles whose lives would be taken.
If the turtle meat is fit for human consumption it would be a mistake and waste not to make use of it. I do wonder to what extent the consideration of turtle meat as a food source has bearing on "The Future of Honu Management".
In the last two years I have had the pleasure of seeing and encountering turtles that have hauled out on the beach and the romantic in me would welcome a day when people and honu could share the beaches as a common occurrence. Could this come to pass if we also resumed in hunting them?
I assume that any plan for culling the green sea turtle population would somehow not jeopardize or threaten the population of honu'ea.
Through overfishing and overharvesting man has reduced the number of items on the "Menu" and we do need to figure out how to reach sustainable levels of consumption and presumably keep the menu diverse. Does this involve getting the honu back on the menu and establishing means of keeping it there? I imagine one might make a case for this but then given the small number of turtles that actually reach reproductive maturity, the threats to hatching sites and the long time period involved between hatchling and maturity, a sustainable sea turtle fishery seems problematic.
I hope the experts use their expertise and can recognize the real truth in their decisions.
The real problem here is not population sizes of critters but the population size of THE apex predator on the planet. Culling of this particular population is not on the table for discussion but continued growth of this population is a real threat to all life forms on the planet including its own. :(
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