CHENNAI: It has been an unpleasant start to Olive Ridleys nesting season this year. In the last three days, five dead turtles were washed ashore in city beaches, highlighting the need for urgent measures.
A close look at the carcass of two adult turtles in Marina, one each in Injambakkam, Pannaiyur and Alambarai beach stretches on East Coast Road (ECR) point to a single killer - trawlers.
The endangered giant Olive Ridley turtle that was found on Friday in the Marina beach had suffered a fatal head injury and her hind flipper was missing indicating she was hit by a trawler. The other four turtles' death was caused due to drowning.
Experts say a majority of turtle deaths are caused by drowning. The bottom trawler boats deploy nets that are targeted to catch shrimp and turtles get caught accidentally. They get dragged for 1-2 hours resulting in suffocation and a painful death for which bulging eyes and swollen necks were indicators.
Under current regulations, mechanised trawl boats are not allowed to operate within 5.5 km in Tamil Nadu and the trawlers that target shrimp fisheries are required to be fitted with Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs), a net specially designed with an exit cover which allows the turtles to escape while retaining the catch, but its limited applicability and lax enforcement are leading to the deaths of hundreds of turtles.
Official records show a whopping 1,048 turtles died in 14 km Chennai coast alone from Neelangarai to Napier Bridge. Last season, 149 turtles are reported dead, which is actually better than two previous years where 278 and 217 turtles died.
Director of Fisheries GS Sameeran told Express the department was planning to enforce the use of TEDs strictly from this year. "We are holding talks with fishermen associations and trying to bring them on board. The problem here is we can not follow them into the sea. Even, if we make them install TEDs, there is no guarantee that they will use them. Tamil Nadu has 4,900 registered trawlers and monitoring them is a herculean task. The fishermen complain that the use of TEDs bringing down the catch by 50 percent, but we are not buying such an argument and will enforce the use of TEDs."
WWF-India, along with its partners, disproved this theory by conducting a study to measure the loss of catch through TEDs, revealing the loss to be a very small percentage of the total catch.
Supraja Dharini, founder of Tree Foundation, said: "Our independent TED trails in previous nesting seasons show the loss of catch was only 2 percent."
Chennai Wildlife Warden CH Padma told Express that the forest department has provided about 200 TEDs to fishermen of three hamlets in Kasimedu and their performance is satisfactory. "We were able to limit the mortality last season, where we also secure a record 50,100 eggs and release 46,000 hatchlings into the sea, a phenomenal 91 percent survival rate."
Beach clean-up drive commences next week
Padma said the forest department along with other line departments and voluntary groups would commence the beach clean-up from next Monday to facilitate nesting of Olive Ridleys.
Plastic and thermocol debris are strewn all along the coastline, which would hinder the turtle nesting. Officials said day/night patrolling activity will also be intensified to prevent any attempts of poaching and damage to nests.
Padma said the department has requested the fisheries department to advance the annual fishing ban to avoid disturbance during the peak nesting period of March-April.
Key facts:
1. Tamil Nadu is the migratory route for Olive Ridley turtles enroute their mass nesting habitats along the beaches of Odisha.
2. The breeding season for the Ridleys is between December and April.
3. Turtles migrate from their various feeding grounds, which may be spread across ocean boundaries and congregrate a few kms off-shore from their natal beaches for mating.
4. The nesting females use the same off-shore habitat during the 11-15 day inter-nesting intervals between their 2-3 nesting events per season.
5. It is during time time that breeding turtles may be threatened by accidental interactions with commercial and artisanal fishers and their gear.
6. A high number of dead and live stranded adult Olive Ridleys are recorded along the east coast between January and March each year.
7. The primary cause of death is observed to be drowning in fishing gear.
8. In 2014, two widely recorded mass stranding - one in Nellore and another in Vellar estuary in Tamil Nadu - were recorded and the combined mortality of those two events was estimated at over 2,000 turtles.