MTN 63:16-17 Sea Turtles in Zanzibar

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Sea Turtles in Zanzibar

Natalie Aitchison
1165 Orange Drive, Oxhard, California 93030 USA

My name is Natalie Aitchison and I am 14 years old. I am very concerned about the survival of sea turtles in Zanzibar and would like to share some information I collected about the plight of these creatures. I lived in Tanzania for eight years, the last two on Zanzibar Island; we returned to the USA in August 1993. Zanzibar (6°S, 39.3°E) is situated off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. The Zanzibari people consume full-grown sea turtles, as well as eggs and, apparently, hatchlings (which are seen in the market). Thus is seems that no one is thinking much about the future. The meat is sold locally and the shells are exported. The shells bring a large income to the exporters. My interest in sea turtles was sparked one evening when my family and I were in town and my father just happened to see someone with a turtle in a wooden wheelbarrow. My father asked us if we wanted to purchase the animal in order to set it free, which of course we did! When we caught up with the cart, the overturned turtle was bleeding from wounds suffered during capture. It was so pathetic and we felt a little sick to our stomachs. We later released "our" turtle, but we cannot know its fate. This incident awakened us to the fact that something needed to be done to save the sea turtles here. That evening I drafted letters to anyone who might be in the least concerned about Zanzibari turtles.

The turtles prefer the east coast and Fumba, one of the southern tips of Zanzibar. The most common sea turtles in Zanzibar are green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbills (Eretmochelys imbricata). Fishermen also occasionally capture a loggerhead (Caretta caretta), but this species is believed to be poisonous and is generally returned to the sea. This belief arose because a loggerhead was caught off the coast of Chwaka and many people gathered to eat it. All these people mysteriously died. This story is also known and believed on the Island of Pemba to the north. There are rare reports of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) (Fiona Clark, pers. comm.). Fiona Clark and Asha Ali Khatib from the Department of Environment recently completed a preliminary survey of the status and distribution of sea turtles in Zanzibar and Pemba, including determining patterns of usage and attitudes towards sea turtles. They are now beginning to encourage community involvement in a sea turtle conservation project. They are also interested in initiating a tourist awareness program with the intent of discouraging visitors from buying curios made from turtle shell. Unfortunately, there is no legal protection for the sea turtles in Zanzibar, for the laws differ from those of mainland Tanzania. And even if there were laws, there are no resources whatsoever to enforce them.

Before returning to the USA, I accompanied Fiona to a village where about eight months ago the villagers found a green sea turtle laying her eggs, killed her, and divided the eggs amongst themselves. One villager named Haji received seven eggs. All by himself he decided to take his eggs home and bury them in the soil of his courtyard, because he was curious about baby sea turtles. After they hatched, one was eaten by a cat, one was released, and five were kept in a plastic tub (two later died, but the remaining three are about six months old). Some six months after finding the first nest, the villagers found another nest (three days old at the time) which they probed with a sharp stick to locate the eggs. Haji was the one to locate the eggs and again he collected them and reburied them in his courtyard. Fiona and Asha explained that moving turtle eggs can be dangerous after the first 24 hours of incubation because the embryos can become dislodged from the egg shells, and it was likely the eggs would not hatch. Taking this new knowledge into account, the next nest Haji found he left in situ. By the time we visited the village, the reburied clutch had been incubating for 85 days and only one hatchling had emerged. During the following week, 10 more emerged but three died. All were retained in the plastic tub.

I hope that in the future the situation will improve for the sea turtles of Zanzibar. With the enthusiasm of Fiona and Asha, it seems certain that something will happen in favor of the fast diminishing sea turtles. Haji is planning to release some of his hatchlings soon, and his efforts have encouraged other villagers to become interested in the welfare of the sea turtles. I hope that soon there will be many eggs left to incubate naturally and that the hatchlings will journey safely to the sea.