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Marine Turtle Newsletter 13:18, © 1979

Book Review: Caribbean Edge

N. Mrosovsky

(by Bernard Nietschmann. Bobbs-Merrill Co.,-Indianapolis, 1979. 280 pp. Price: $12.95 USA).

"Field research," writes Nietschmann, "can be a profound human experience. Yet accounts of many studies are written as if the investigation had taken place in a vacuum as if the researcher suddenly had been teletransported to the site and, by means of clairvoyance or immaculate conceptual perception, had faultlessly initiated and completed the research project in one blinding flash of academic ingenuity. Let me tell you, it usually doesn't work this way..." There follows a series of well-turned anecdotes, some in the genre of Carr's "The Windward Road". These describe in an amusing and sometimes moving way the difficulties Nietschmann encountered in his studies of the Miskito Indians living on the East Coast of Nicaragua. Behind these stories lies a serious theme: the damage done both to people and turtles when harvesting for subsistence is replaced by over-exploitation for foreign trade. For instance, in 1968 it took 2 people 4 hours on average to catch a green turtle in the Miskito cays, in 1971 8 hours, and in 1975 24 hours; villagers traditionally dependent on turtle meat were going hungry as a result. The book devotes 3 chapters to turtling techniques and the history and importance of turtles in this part of the Caribbean. Apart from occasional descriptive passages where the prose becomes clogged with adjectives, the writing is engaging. This book will be enjoyed by anyone interested in turtles as well as stimulating them to think about fundamental goals and problems of conservation.