A researcher and his team in Venezuela is helping save Hawksbill Sea Turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) by working with communities there.
The shells of the endangered Hawksbill Sea Turtles are a main source of “tortoiseshell” and although the trade was banned in 1977, a 2017 report estimated that black-market tortoiseshell sold in Colombia originates in Venezuela.
Clemente Balladares Castillo explains that on Veneuzeula’s Caribbean coastline there are two important populations of Hawksbill Sea Turtles: the Los Roques archipelago and the Gulf of Paria.
“The Hawksbill turtle is the most sought-after marine reptile species, not only for its meat and eggs, but also not only for its meat and eggs, but also for its ornate shell, which is used for illegal in illegal jewelry in most countries,” he says.
In the 2000s after working with the development of satellite oceanography applications for the Simon Bolivar University, Balladares saw an opportunity at the Ministry of Environment (Minec) of Veneuzeula and in 2001 went to the town of Macuro where sea turtle depredation was alarming.
“Something had to be done,” he says, “The power to change the minds of illegal looters and its possible consequences in the local extinction of critically endangered species such as the Hawksbill is a great achievement,” he says.
By 2005, he was the coordinator of the Macuro project, and for the first decade the project fully financed by the environmental ministry and from 2020 they received international funds from the NGO Provita.
“I work with the Macuro community which is a village of 1500 inhabitants with more than 80 small-scale fishermen who used to heavily prey on sea turtles and now this illegal activity has been reduced notably,” he says, “I have a team of 15 locals: four seaman, three teachers, three boatmen and six park rangers.”
Balladares explains that the project’s strategy for changing hearts and minds was diplomacy and respect for the locals.
“Teaching environmental environmental laws, setting the example of correct use; training and hiring local personnel, as well as environmental education at all levels, especially children,” he says.
Ballandares is also a grantee of the New England Aquarium’s Marine Conservation Action Fund, which helped finance his work.
Growing Up in Venezuela
Balladares was born and raised in the Venezuelan capital, but I studied at the coastal city of Cumana.
Balladares explains that his inspiration comes since he was a teenager with his admiration for French conservationist Jacques Cousteau, and first-hand from a biologist from the Santiago de León School in Caracas who gave him a motivational talk.
“Upon graduation I worked in tuna fishing in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, then ecotourism in the Venezuelan Amazon and seaweed aquaculture for Empresas Polar in the Araya Peninsula,” he says.
Balladares explains that in the Global South, good science is done with minimal resources plus a local community that understands its problem and wants to improve.
“There is nothing like continuing to work in spite of bureaucratic hurdles, small or big local enemies,” he says, “International collaboration should not be a brake but a great bridge.”
Hawksbill Turtles in Haiti
In another troubled nation on the Carribean Sea, Francklin Barbier, the Sea Turtle and Sea Bird Coordinator at the Haiti Ocean Project says that he and his team work to research and document Haiti’s little-studied sea turtle populations.
“As an island, a portion of Haiti’s natural heritage is found in the surrounding ocean, namely our marine megafauna,” he says, adding that in Haiti, turtles are still sold for their meat and shells.
“I naturally realized that the Hawksbill was in more danger, as it was not only killed as a food source but also at risk as their shells are used to create ornamental products,” he says, adding that the biggest challenge he faces is the frequent fuel shortages in Haiti, as some of the communities he works with are only accessible by boat.
“The information and data gathered has confirmed the biggest threats to these sea turtles, helping me to find sustainable solutions,” he says, ” I am also learning more about their potential migration routes, helping fill an important gap in regional sea turtle databases.”
