By The Maritime Executive, 07-13,
2017
Sea Shepherd volunteers and local
police have had rocks thrown at them during efforts to save turtles. Less than
two weeks after publishing images of poached sea turtles on the French island
of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, Sea Shepherd volunteers interrupted a poaching
operation on the night of July 7.
The island in the Indian Ocean
between Madagascar and Mozambique is home to a 68,381km² protected marine
reserve, rich in ocean wildlife. Yet the sea turtles are often killed by
poachers who sell the meat on the black market.
When the volunteers arrived at
the beach known as Moya 1, one of the most popular tourist beaches on the Petit
Terre island, they spotted a 4x4 vehicle, its lights switched off as it waited
to pick up poached turtle meat. The guards, who should have been there to
protect the turtles who come to lay their eggs, were nowhere to be seen.
Down on the beach, the volunteers
found two turtles ripped open with their eggs scattered in the sand. Sea
Shepherd alerted the local gendarmes. The poachers, who had run to hide on a
hill overlooking the beach, began throwing rocks at the volunteers and police
from above. No one was hurt, however the poachers also set the Sea Shepherd
volunteers’ car on fire.
Despite the intervention of three
police officers, who helped seize some of the turtle meat which was left behind
by the fleeing poachers, no arrests could be made because the security on the
beach that night was grossly insufficient compared to the scale of the threat,
says Sea Shepherd.
“France seems to remain blind and
deaf concerning the social and ecological crisis which is raging in Mayotte,”
said President of Sea Shepherd France, Lamya Essemlali. “France is letting its
overseas department perish, a place which is home to one of the world’s largest
lagoons, rich in local biodiversity. The only law which seems to prevail on
this island is the law of the jungle. This condition has caused social and
environmental chaos which is hard to imagine in continental France.”
Sea Shepherd launched Operation
Nyamba in June 2017 at the request of locals and work with them to fight the
poaching with direct action. “Even though the circumstances on the ground
turned out to be worse and more dramatic than we expected, the situation has
only reinforced our determination,” says Essemlali. “We will not give up on
Mayotte.”
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