Mexican Populations Of Hawksbill Turtles In Rapid Decline

[hatrack]

MEXICO CITY — Activists of the World Wildlife Fund called on Mexico and the Caribbean nations on Tuesday to urgently implement plans to reverse what the organization called "a drastic decline" in the population of hawksbill sea turtles.

The hawksbills are considered endangered, and are one of the seven sea-turtle species that call Mexico home. The group said the turtle population had fallen to half its previous levels, according to final reports from counts in 2004.

"Until recently, the international scientific community believed this endangered population was on the rise. Current research shows otherwise," WWF said in a press statement. The population numbers were already low, and are now only about half of the 5,595 nests found in 2000 on the beaches of the Mexican states of Veracruz, Campeche, and Yucatan.

EDIT

Mexican waters are home to seven of the world's eight major species of sea turtle; some are doing poorly, others are recovering. The hawksbill, like most of the other species, also inhabits other parts of the Caribbean and the world, but Mexico is considered one of its main nesting grounds. The leatherback, turtle, for example is on extinction alert lists worldwide, and its adult population in Mexico appears to be dwindling."

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=6962

[blindpig]

1. unclear as to why

Human depredation on sea turtles usually have one or more of the following reasons:

1)by-catch
2)egg hunters. Turtle eggs are considered an aphrodisiac in Latin America and are eaten raw, sold in bars.
3)leather trade. Don't think this applies to hawksbills but Mexico's Olive Ridley population was trashed for the little bit skin they have. They used to nest on the Pacific Coast by the 100,000's.
4)Meat. Also non-applicable, Hawksbill meat is considered nasty to toxic.
5)Tortoise shell, also known as carey. The Hawksbill is the only source. Plastics have supplanted most commonplace usage but there is still a luxury market, mostly in Japan.

And this list leaves aside habitat(beach)destruction and that ugly tumorous disease that we've somehow dumped on sea turtles.

God or Gods forgive us.