Leatherback turtle found slain on beach in Tobago
Just finished a Turtle Campaign meeting which went very well. We are really moving forward and I will be updating my site within the next few days – www.sharonfeinstein.co.uk. But we haven’t had a donation to the Campaign for a week or so and still need your financial support, awareness and attention.
A British family have just returned from Tobago and came across a slaughter, a leatherback hacked to death and left to rot. Financial consultant Paul Shoard took pictures of the tragic, decimated, rotting creature and sent them to me, which will help to fuel our campaign and prove that this is happening now.
He says: ” Iwas staying at Turtle Beach Hotel for the third time with my wife, daughter and son. The pictures of the turtle remains were taken late afternoon on Sunday July 19th July. Peter Cox, local environmentalist and tour guide, had been tipped off that a turtle had been killed a few days previously, so we walked with him along the beach at Great Courland Bay from Turtle Beach Hotel towards Plymouth. My wife noticed a faint but unusual smell at one point and my daughter then spotted an area of flattened vegetation just off the beach. A few yards in, behind a bush, we discovered some entrails and a pile of palm leaves. We lifted the palm leaves to reveal the remains of the leatherbacks carapace. We all stood for a moment, overwhelmed by sadness that this wonderful creature that had probably roamed the oceans of the world for 40 years, should have ended up crudely slaughtered as she came to lay her eggs. Peter asked us to take photographs because although it was common knowledge locally that the leatherbacks were hunted, poachers usually destroyed, buried or hid the evidence.I hope the photos will help promote the turtles cause and assist in some small way in the campaign to persuade the Trinidad and Tobago Government to take stronger measures to protect the leatherbacks nesting on Tobago.”
So do I, and that’s what this Campaign is all about. Please go to www.sharonfeinsein.co.uk, Help Turtles. If you aren’t able to donate, please help spread the word so that more attention can be brought to this cause to save the leatherback sea turtles.