Up to 20,000 sea turtle eggs crushed by bulldozers on Caribbean island

FishFishy · Jul 10, 2012

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_new...ushed-by-bulldozers-on-caribbean-island?lite/

Thousands of leatherback sea turtle hatchlings and eggs were crushed over the weekend by bulldozers and excavators used to divert a river on the Caribbean island of Trinidad.

"Unfortunately the engineers in charge bulldozed a far greater portion of beach than necessary, and they did destroy many viable nests," the Papa Bois Conservation group posted on its Facebook page.

It wasn't immediately clear how much of an impact the tragedy would have on the critically endangered species, but the group noted that it happened on "the world's most densely populated leatherback nesting beach."

Papa Bois said it wasn't opposed to diverting the river, since it had been eroding not only a local eco-tourist hotel but the nesting area itself. But it noted that the work was done without supervision by "any of the local turtle protection groups."

It also didn't blame the equipment operators, but those "higher up" who told the crews where to work -- "not one of whom was on site to make sure the works were done with as little damage as possible," the group added. "There was no coordination, no leadership."

Sherwin Reyz, a member of the Grand Riviere Environmental Awareness Trust, saved some 500 hatchlings but estimated that up to 20,000 eggs were crushed or consumed by vultures and stray dogs that quickly moved in to eat the remains.

"They had a very good meal. I was near tears," Reyz told the Associated Press. "It was a disgusting mess."

Female sea turtles return to the beaches where they were born to dig sandy nests and incubate eggs. Leatherbacks lay about 100 eggs at a time, but not even 1 percent survive to adulthood.

Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtle species -- some more than 7 feet long and weighing 2,000 pounds. They can live 100 years.

They are also one of seven species of sea turtles, all of which are endangered due to reduced habitat, human consumption of eggs and even being caught up in fishing gear.

The Trinidad hotel owner who had been asking the government to redirect the Grand Riviere River said he was shocked by how it was handled.

"For some reason they dug up the far end of the beach, absolutely encroaching into the good nesting areas," Piero Guerrini, an Italian who owns Mt. Plaisir Estate Hotel, told the Associated Press. "This could have been avoided with a much wiser approach. But it was done too late and it was done in the wrong way."

Guerrini's hotel was full of tourists who had come to this Caribbean country to see the tiny leatherback hatchlings head for the sea. Instead they saw hatchlings dying in front of their eyes. "This really put a lot of bad images in people's minds," he added.
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Fucking horrible.

The debater · Jul 10, 2012

Horrible, but wasn't it done out of error mate? Extremely saddening to hear.

3Socks · Jul 10, 2012

Absolutely horrible.
Construction companies have always not given a fuck anyway.
This needs to get a change.

Davidp123 · Jul 10, 2012

Damn the company in charge of this should be fined for this.

MrLuckyDraw · Jul 10, 2012

Davidp123 said: ↑

Damn the company in charge of this should be fined for this.
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I don't think that is enough.

I hope that there is something being done to fix the problem. By fix, I mean something to make sure nothing like this happens again.

glamazonia · Jul 10, 2012

That is just appalling...if it was already known to be densely populated, greater care should have been given and noted from the start.

I hope something is done about this.

JamRsPins · Jul 10, 2012

Just sums up humanity really. A stupid, destructive, careless and selfish species.

kill dank · Jul 10, 2012

typical idiots not giving a shit.

Probably a bunch of foreigners operating the equipment.

kmjt · Jul 10, 2012

Horrible.

And omg I never knew turtles can be that big =O

&lt;3&#9787; · Jul 10, 2012

:huh::sick_O
Why?

Merkdat · Jul 10, 2012

That is insane.. so greasy

McKinnonj · Jul 11, 2012

Of course. It's what happens to our wildlife when humans step in. Fucking ignorant people.

Sypherz · Jul 11, 2012

My ex-girlfriend would go to Coasta Rica to try to stop that shit.
God, I miss that insane little hippie.
Put seriously, this is disgusting. Wish it could be fixed :/

Rockerr · Jul 11, 2012

This fucking bullshit. I love turtles.

bebelusa · Jul 11, 2012

this is sad...

Laptop65 · Jul 11, 2012

Disgusting and pathetic, I hope they're fined $100 for every Turtle killed.

Zerkerfist · Jul 11, 2012

If turtles weren't one of the slowest creatures in the world, they would have been able to rush and save all their eggs before the dozers squashed them.

I am a horrible person, I know. This is sad.