Turtles need protecting

 By LAZARUS BIRA

A LACK of enforcement by relevant authorities to protect declining marine turtles is threatening their survival, a marine specialist, Job Opu says. 

Opu said the Fauna Act 1976 was meant to protect marine turtles.

“Under the Act, people can harvest the turtles by using traditional methods of hunting to allow some turtles to be conserved,” Opu said.

“The turtles are not allowed to be harvested and sold in the markets but only for domestic consumption.”

He said under the law, the leatherback turtles were restricted from harvest as the species was endangered because very few existed today. 

“Their eggs were not allowed to be harvested as well,” he said.

Opu said coastal communities should comply with the law to help conserve the turtles and the Department of Environment and Conservation could help.

“We need to conserve the turtles in our seas because we do not want a similar situation to occur like the dugongs that existed in the seas outside Port Moresby,” he said.

“The dugongs have gone extinct. Thirty-years ago, these animals had existed.”

Papua New Guinea has five marine species, including the leatherback, green and hawksbill turtles, out of the seven that exist in the world.