Sea turtles make their way to the ocean at Dawn Beach. Photo Nature Foundation.
TSXM – GREAT BAY – Security Staff at the Westin hotel contacted the St. Maarten Nature Foundation early on Friday morning about a large number of sea turtle hatchlings on Dawn Beach. The foundation’s staff recorded 95 hatchlings successfully making it to the beach safely.
This marks the fourteenth sea turtle nest that has successfully hatched during the 2013 nesting season. This is the highest number since the Nature Foundation started keeping records in 2003. The community has played a key role in assisting the Nature Foundation in managing turtle nesting areas and adhering to the laws regarding the country’s sea turtle population.
Their numbers have plummeted to a dangerously low throughout the past century due to human impacts, bringing many species close to extinction and causing them to be listed as critically endangered.
To reverse this trend, all sea turtle species are now protected by international laws and treaties as well as local laws. Based on Article 16 and 17 of the Nature Conservation Ordinance St. Maarten it is illegal to kill, wound, capture, pick-up, have animals that belong to a protected animal species, to directly or indirectly disturb their environment resulting in a physical threat or damage to the fauna or to commit other acts which result in disturbance of the animal.
It is also forbidden to upset an animal belonging to a protected species, to disturb damage or destroy its nest, lair, or breeding place, as well as to take the nest of such an animal. Also, it is forbidden to pick-up or to destroy the eggs of animals belonging to a protected species. If sea turtles, their nests, or hatchlings are found readers is urged to contact the Nature Foundation at 544 42 67.
See how one of the hatchlings makes it to the ocean on the Nature Foundation YouTube page YouTube.com/NFSXM.
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