KARACHI: Sea turtles were released in deep sea from the shores of Hawke’s Bay by WWF Pakistan as part of its initiative aimed at conservation of endangered species of tortoise.
The activity was carried out on Wednesday in connection with the World Sea Turtle Day that is observed every year on June 16 since 2000 with an aim to raise awareness about the dwindling population of sea turtles and their diminishing habitat.
Five species of marine turtles were reported from Pakistan including green turtles, loggerhead turtle, hawksbill turtle, leatherback turtle and Olive Ridley turtles.
Technical Adviser WWF-Pakistan, Muhammad Moazzam Khan, informed that in Pakistan, sea turtles are known to nest on a number of beaches including Sandspit, Hawksbay and Cape Monz along the Sindh coast and Taq (Ormara), Astola Island, Gwadar Headland and Daran along the Balochistan coast.
Thousands of female turtles visit these beaches to nest and lay eggs while that plastic waste, collapsing huts and rubble pose a serious threat to nesting females and juveniles, he added.
As a result of construction of huts along Sandspit, Hawksbay and Taq major nesting grounds of sea turtles are adversely affected while entanglement in fishing nets is the most serious threat to marine turtles.
A WWF Pakistan study, carried out in 2012 to collect data on entanglement of turtles, revealed that 30000 sea turtles were annually caught in tuna gillnet fisheries.
To protect the sea turtles, WWF-Pakistan trained a total of 100 skippers and crew members to safely release them and developed a modification in the operation of the gillnets which reduced entanglement of sea turtles by 85 per cent.
Moazzam termed pollution as another major threat to the sea turtle population in Pakistani waters as popular beaches were littered with garbage while impact of diesel and petrol on the population of turtles was also reported.
A number of steps have been taken by concerned government agencies for the protection of sea turtles along Pakistan’s coast, he said adding that fisheries related legislation of Sindh and Balochistan have been amended and sea turtles as well as freshwater turtles were declared protected.
Declaration of Astola Island as a Marine Protected Area (MPA), actions taken by the wildlife departments of Sindh and Balochistan, efforts made by WWF-Pakistan, as well as awareness programmes initiated by some NGOs, have collectively resulted in an increase in the turtle population along Pakistan’s coast, he said.
“However there was a need to declare all turtle beaches along the coast of Sindh and Balochistan as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This is essentially required for conservation of marine turtles in Pakistan”, he stated.
Rab Nawaz, Senior Director Conservation Biodiversity, WWF-Pakistan said that sea turtles have been in existence for more than 100 million years but are under serious threat due to human activities such as destruction of nesting sites and unplanned development besides climate change .
Calling for immediate steps for their conservation, he urged relevant departments for taking stringent measures for protection of sea turtles including declaration of all major nesting grounds as MPAs.
Though turtles are not commercially harvested for food in Pakistan, poaching of turtle eggs has been reported in the country while turtle hatchlings are also illegally removed from their nests and sold in aquarium shops, he said and stressed the need of action by government of Sindh against poachers for curbing the illegal trade.
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