Students from the public and private schools enjoyed an exciting day on Wednesday, May 24, as they got to interact with a quantity of the island’s greenback turtles. It was an annual event whereby the Department of Marine and Fisheries invite members of the public to witness the tagging of the turtles.
“Every week the Department of Fisheries tags turtles but we focus on the hawksbill turtles because they are easier to catch by hand. The greenback turtles are more difficult to catch and so every year – like today – we invite the public to witness the event,” Kafi Gumbs, Director of Fisheries and Marine Resources, told The Anguillian. “We operate a net to catch the greenbacks and so we get members of the community to help us. The fishermen in Island Harbour lent us two boats – thanks to Wayne John and Trivon Smith. We went out just between Island Harbour and Scilly Cay and rounded up the turtles. Staff from Fisheries and volunteers swam within the net and caught the turtles by hand, put them in the boats, and tagged them using PIT tags and satellite tags.”
She continued: “Turtles are endangered species and the oldest creatures in the ocean. Because of their ecological importance we want to ensure we have a healthy population of turtles in Anguilla’s waters. They graze on the sea grass thus increasing its growth. In turn the sea grass plays an important function for coastal protection from storm surges.”
The Marine Biologist further stated: “Besides coastal protection we have lobsters – our most important commercial species – and juvenile lobsters live in sea grass so we want to make sure there’s healthy sea grass around the island.”
She said with the tagging of the turtles, countries around the world can notify each other where turtles were tagged; update them on the progress of the turtle and where they were spotted. She noted that said turtles have been tracked in the US, Canada and, most recently, a turtle tagged in Anguilla was seen in Venezuela.
She was pleased with the support shown on the day noting there was a large turnout of tourists to see the turtles.
Turtle Interaction Day in Anguilla was sponsored by Placid Pools and International Wines and Spirits. The event was generally thought to have been a success.
