BEST: ‘Ethical Dilemmas’ With Turtle Relocation

[Updated] “The planned temporary relocating of turtles — certainly with the turtles’ interest at heart — from the America’s Cup main racecourse, poses a number of environmental and ethical dilemmas,” BEST said today.

It was previously announced that in “anticipation of intense boating activity in the Great Sound,” the America’s Cup Bermuda is “coordinating a temporary sea turtle relocation project,” in which “sea turtles will be netted based on methods used successfully for turtle tagging operations and temporarily relocated inside a purpose-built ocean enclosure” near the Aquarium in Flatts.

A statement from the environmental group said, “In Bermuda, as elsewhere, human intervention with the environment has been done sometimes for the best of reasons but with the worst of outcomes.

“As examples, the introduction of cane toads, anolis lizards, cannibal snails, kiskadees, casuarinas, Chinese fan palms, to name a few, have shown that Bermuda’s humans still have much to learn about the interconnectedness of the Island’s life-forms and, indeed, life on our planet Earth.

“The planned temporary relocating of turtles — certainly with the turtles’ interest at heart — from the America’s Cup main racecourse, poses a number of environmental and ethical dilemmas. There are difficult choices:

• Do nothing and risk danger to turtles in the area [more turtles in the area = more risk]. If a turtle is struck, risk adverse publicity locally and internationally; lose credibility as environmental stewards.

• Do something and risk doing too much or too little or the wrong thing; risk adverse effects on turtle health due to stresses from being moved, penned, mal-fed and/or injured.

“Beyond these immediate choices there are more global, principled issues; briefly:

“1. Humans often act like all Bermuda’s land and sea areas belong to us and only us.

“It seems to be a facet of human development, that we have regarded the environment as ours, to use and exploit for our benefit, without consideration of the profound effects of our individual actions — world-wide, multiplied several billion times.

“If only we could harness the power in the small steps taken by each of us toward collective behavior change, and in our own very important role and responsibility in the balance of ecosystems.

“2. If AC or other ongoing inshore sail or motor racing activity is to take place beyond this year, the turtles will have to be moved permanently, or sacrificed.

“Such racing and on-water activities have been taking place and multiplying for decades. However, it has taken the ‘intense’ America’s Cup activity to make us look at wildlife mitigation. Piecemeal actions and legislations have happened in the past, such as the fish pot ban, protection of cedars, fishing restrictions.

“What is needed is a holistic land, air and marine environmental plan. The AC is huge, bringing with it a locally yet-to-be-experienced concentration of human and boating activity.

“Our lack of facilities, legislation and the will to do the right thing with managing marine debris, pump out stations, fueling stations, etc., show that we are behind the 8-ball compared to other, often less-affluent countries. Any lessons learned — and we hope there will be many — can be put into practice in our everyday lives.

“We cannot move sea turtles or any other feral marine life permanently. It is not our right to do so, even if we had the ability. We must implement forward planning, wide consultations, and sustainable management and legislative practices such that decisions are not made ad hoc or by event. Then we must have the strength to enforce and stand by our believed and written best practices. The demise in the end may just be our own if we don’t.

“3. Bermuda must visit and revisit the issue of Carrying Capacity: How many humans can sustainably exist on this island? Bermuda, and Earth, are finite. Continuous growth is simply not sustainable. What is the carrying capacity for sea turtles [and perhaps other marine life] on sea grass beds that have been receding over the years? We do not know what our contribution to has been to the demise of sea grass but we should not assume we have had no impact as a species. Are we depleting fish stocks and threatening the very valuable, future food supply? It is in our hands to manage this sustainably.

“4. How can we ultimately determine and decide the balance between cars vs. bikes [motor/pedal], houses/hotels vs. parklands, race-sailing machines vs. turtles, speed vs. safety, and so on…

“If we do not make the appropriate choices now, individually and collectively, through lifestyle choices and legislative action, Mother Earth will decide in the end, and likely shake us off, repair herself and move on into the future without us.”

Update May 15, 3.13pm: BEST said they wish to “go on the record as affirming support for the Bermuda Government’s decision to temporarily relocate turtles from the areas with increased levels of boating traffic associated with the America’s Cup, and to corral them in an enclosure near the Aquarium.

“The scheme planned for this preventative exercise has the advantage of being the best precautionary plan that could be devised, given the issues of locating, capturing, transporting, holding, feeding and monitoring the captives, followed by that list in reverse to repatriate the turtles to the Great Sound. We are reassured that the most knowledgable marine biological expertise available has been engaged, which will no doubt lead to the best possible outcome under the circumstances.

“Nonetheless, we would be neglecting our mandate if we did not point out that relocating the turtles is not a long term solution. Unless we plan to eliminate turtles and other marine life forever from zones we humans increasingly claim for our recreation or sport — an unacceptable outcome — we will need to give systematic attention to the competing entitlement to shared environmental space.

“Meanwhile, we wish the relocation teams maximum success in this exercise.”

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Category: All, Environment, News