Turtle Species in Pakistan Are About to Go Extinct

Time to stand up! Turtles in Pakistan are on the verge of being extinct due to habitat degradation, entanglement in fishing gear, climate change and illegal wildlife trade.

Pakistan hosts five species of marine life with plenteous green turtles nesting along the coast, around eight species of freshwater turtles and two species of land tortoise.

Since the year 2000, World Turtle Day is celebrated across the globe annually every May 23rd. It was triggered off by the American Tortoise Rescue – a United States (US) based non-governmental organization in order to make people aware of the turtles and tortoise and help them survive in their natural habitat.

Turtles go a long way back around a 100 million years ago but sadly, along with the rest of the animals, are about to go extinct in Pakistan.

Major Threats to Marine Turtles

• mortality during fishing operations
• pollution
• habitat degradation
• climate change

Green turtles are found along the coast of Sindh and Balochistan nesting on sandy shores.

Sindh Costs Nesting Grounds

• Sandspit
• Hawke’s Bay
• Paradise Point

Balochistan Coast Nesting Grounds

• Sonmiani
• Taq in Ormara
• Astola Island
• Daran in Jiwani

There are no reports of Olive Ridley turtles nesting in Pakistan shores anymore, the last report dated back 14 years ago, which according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Pakistan, is the most common species found in the country.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) – Pakistan

The plan of action for WWF-Pakistan is to set satellite tags on turtles by October 2018 which would be easier for them to keep a track of their migrations and nesting grounds.

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Loggerhead, hawksbill and leatherback turtles – marine turtles – have rarely been found on the coast. But based on the reports of WWF-Pakistan, these species have been seen.

Freshwater Turtles

Alongside marine turtles, freshwater turtles are also facing some serious danger like illegal poaching, habitat degradation, water shortage, fragmentation of rivers and canals and fishing operations. The major threat to them is the export of fresh water turtle meat which is an illegal act and is banned.

WWF-Pakistan, provincial wildlife departments, Pakistan Customs and other stakeholders have raided many consignments that contain freshwater turtles, land tortoise and their meat. These agencies are keeping a close eye on the illegal trade of turtles.

WWF-Pakistan Technical Adviser Muhammad Moazzam Khan said, “[Mortality of turtles is on increase] because of ever-increasing gill net fleets and ghost fishing gears.

Pakistan agreed to comply with the US requirement of having turtle excluder devices in 1999. However, because of non-implementation, the US authorities have imposed a ban on the export of shrimp from Pakistan since May 2017

Subsurface Gillnetting 

Local fishermen have been convinced by WWF-Pakistan to change from surface gillnetting to subsurface gillnetting, thus reducing the number of turtles entangled in gillnets by around 95% as many turtles inhabit in surface water. With the subsurface gillnetting, turtles can easily swim over them. 300 fishermen are also trained to safely set-free the entangled turtles.

Turtles face a huge threat of extinction mostly because of human activity and climate change which is why, according to the WWF-Pakistan Wildlife Director Dr Babar Khan, it has become necessary to spread the awareness of the importance of turtles and tortoise amongst the general public, with more emphasis on spreading it to the youth.  He also emphasized on keeping a strict check on the borders to control the illegal trade of these friendly creatures.

Via: Tribune

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