Torture of the Marines

Ok, so it is true that after I accepted my extension, I first learned the word for sea turtle: La tortue marine. As you can imagine, I immediately thought someone was asking me if the WWF works in the field of torture of the Marines. I was very confused. Needless to say, after finally understanding that it means marine tortoises, I could say, “Yes.”

The WWF worked a great deal in the past with the conservation of sea turtles, but because of funding (something I am learning about huge NGOs like WWF) they had to stop several years ago. We follow the hot trends in conservation. Whatever is in mode in the conservation world is where money can be found, and that is how the WWF determines its work. Right now gorilla tourism is the hip thing to investigate, and sorry, turtles. Sorry fishermen. But all the work up until now (at least 5 years of work) is all you’re going to get. Don’t even look at the fact that behavior change towards conservation (particularly in parts of the world that live hand-to-mouth off of their natural resources) takes a REALLY long time. There is just no money.

This week in Cameroon marks the national holiday of “Youth Day.” It seems odd from the Western perspective where it is the youth (defined as anyone under 45ish) who rule the world, as we forget the aging because, well, wrinkles are just not attractive. But there is a holiday for the neglected, often over-worked, underpaid, powerless youth. As part of these festivities, I’ve been working with a local group of (exceptionally educated) fishermen who are interested in sea turtle conservation. We went to some coastal primary schools to give some lessons (ok, I really just sat there and watched as they gave their lesson). In the schools we learned that 100% of the school kids have eaten turtle and turtle eggs. So clearly we know that the efforts put forth in sea turtle conservation are not working. I would say that it isn’t necessarily bad to eat sea turtles and their eggs for these very low technology fishermen, but everyone’s effort counts, right? I keep coming back to images from the film “Sharkwater” where these huge trawlers pull out shark from the ocean, cut off their fins, and then throw them back into the water, still alive, only to sink down to the bottom of the ocean floor to await a starving death. All of this to the soundtrack of Portishead. Yep.

Here, fishermen eat shark, too. But these guys have small wooden canoes carved from a tree trunk. They push them out from the beach with much effort, tie them up in the water until take off time, and then in the late afternoon or early morning, swim out to the boat, hop in, and take off for days at a time. When they catch a shark, they might sell it. But Cameroonians eat all parts of the shark. They love that the shark is rich in oil (less cooking oil they have to use), and they always thank God for their catch before chowing down. It is the same thing with sea turtles. While there is (I imagine) a niche market for wealthy Chinese who want to eat turtle eggs/turtle meat, these fishermen won’t chase down a turtle that is coming to land to nest. They’ll probably eat their eggs, but will certainly leave the turtle alone. But if a turtle got caught in their net in the water, they are fair game.

Last night I attended a meeting with the fishermen, and as a representative of the WWF (fortunately a new one) I learned how tense some of these negotiations can be. There is so much resentment towards an unfulfilled promise of compensation for turtle by-catch. They even believe that the WWF was using them for personal profit. And I can’t blame them. Turtles are listed species, and so technically it is illegal for the fishermen to kill the turtles. But I keep coming back to my Wolves in Yellowstone grad school class with Cristina Eisenberg. Even wealthy American ranchers need motivation to not kill the wolves that have killed their cattle. So why shouldn’t these already hungry fishermen demand compensation for releasing their by-catch that potentially has damaged their fishing net and that could feed their family for a few days? There isn’t sufficient law enforcement to patrol the beaches (let alone the park), so what do they care that it is illegal? They will never get caught.

And I keep thinking that we are accusing the wrong population. The new development of a (Chinese, of course) deep-sea port taking up to 40 kilometers of coast just north of us possibly has a much larger influence. Not only will this increase the population greatly with workers (many of whom are coming from outside and who have no idea about the importance of sea turtles or the ecology of the ocean), but the sheer magnitude of destruction is unthinkable! The EIA for the sea port declared that its impact on sea turtles will be minimal because there is the stretch of coast to the south where sea turtles are known to nest. Hilarious, right? Way to put the pressure on the fishermen to a) release their by-catch when their families are hungry, b) become the eco-guards to stop poaching by outsiders (Cameroonians and Chinese) who could care less about the quality of the oceans life, and c) never develop their own livelihoods because of the expectation that nothing will change over the next 50 years in terms of the quality of life of the local population. When EIAs like this get approved and projects are pushed forward for the sake of development, the legal code of this country is compromised. Why even have laws?

Needless to say I will continue to work under the assumption that, much like we see in America, collaborative governance works. The locals can be interested in conservation for the sake of better fisheries management and the WWF will continue to try to work based on the long-term impact, not the hottest trends in the world of conservation funding.