Decline in turtle nesting prompts call for protection

Leatherback tur­tles and all sea tur­tle species in Trinidad and To­ba­go are legal­ly recog­nised as En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Species un­der na­tion­al law, as of­fi­cials re­port de­clines in nest­ing ac­tiv­i­ty at sev­er­al beach­es.

Deputy Chair­man of the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty Neeala Mon­groo said the re­turn of leatherback tur­tles each year high­lights the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty placed on Trinidad and To­ba­go to pro­tect the species.

Mon­groo said the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty re­mains com­mit­ted to pro­tect­ing tur­tles and main­tain­ing the nest­ing cy­cle.

Un­der the 2018 Na­tion­al En­vi­ron­men­tal Pol­i­cy, the coun­try con­tin­ues mea­sures aimed at pro­tect­ing nat­ur­al re­sources. Of­fi­cials say sea tur­tles face threats in­clud­ing cli­mate change, coastal de­vel­op­ment, ac­ci­den­tal cap­ture in fish­eries and cul­tur­al prac­tices.

Com­mu­ni­ty groups, gov­ern­ment agen­cies and non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions con­tin­ue work on nest­ing beach pa­trols, mon­i­tor­ing and eco­tourism ini­tia­tives linked to tur­tle nest­ing sites.

Da­ta from sev­er­al nest­ing beach­es show changes over time.

At Grande Riv­iere, nests in­creased from 2,985 in 2008 to 5,361 in 2018. Counts reached 6,113 in 2016 and 6,447 in 2017. In 2025, the num­ber de­clined to 1,683.

At Matu­ra, mon­i­tored by Na­ture Seek­ers, nest­ing num­bers in­creased from 1,607 in 2008 to 3,545 in 2018, with a peak of 5,749 in 2017. Records show 5,219 nests in 2023 and 2,722 in 2025.

At Fish­ing Pond, nest­ing re­mained at sim­i­lar lev­els af­ter 2016, with fluc­tu­a­tions in­clud­ing 493 nests in 2010 and 3,779 in 2014.

The 2026 nest­ing sea­son runs from March 1 to Au­gust 31. Five sea tur­tle species — leatherback, green, hawks­bill, log­ger­head and olive ri­d­ley — are pro­tect­ed un­der the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Act.

Key nest­ing sites in Trinidad in­clude Grande Riv­iere, Matu­ra, Fish­ing Pond, Las Cuevas, Blan­chisseuse, Yarra and To­co. Sites in To­ba­go in­clude Stone­haven Bay at Grafton, Mount Irvine Bay and Eng­lish­man’s Bay.

Grande Riv­iere, Matu­ra and Fish­ing Pond are des­ig­nat­ed pro­hib­it­ed ar­eas un­der the Forests Act. Vis­i­tors must ob­tain per­mis­sion from the Forestry Di­vi­sion of the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries to ac­cess these beach­es for tur­tle view­ing.

The En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty is ad­vis­ing the use of trained guides and is­sued guide­lines for tur­tle view­ing.

These in­clude avoid­ing dri­ving on nest­ing beach­es, keep­ing a dis­tance of up to 20 me­tres from nest­ing tur­tles, wear­ing dark cloth­ing, avoid­ing flash pho­tog­ra­phy, not lit­ter­ing and not touch­ing tur­tles or hatch­lings.

Vi­o­la­tions un­der the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Act may re­sult in fines of up to $100,000 and two years’ im­pris­on­ment. Breach­es can be re­port­ed to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice or the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty hot­line.