Are turtles really being protected in the Maldives?
While the killing of turtles is seen as a major crime in the Maldives, these cases are rarely reported and fines are usually not imposed.
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Save the turtles has been one of the biggest movements that took popularity over the past few years. While the ‘save the turtle’ organisation has been putting in effort in order to ensure turtles do not become endangered animals, over the past few years, the general community has picked up on the importance of this movement.
One of the biggest steps forward we saw was when people stopped the usage of plastic straws. And the real reason behind this movement was when a video went viral that showed a turtle suffering as it had a plastic straw caught up its nose. With this influx of information, people started the movement towards making the general public more aware of how our usage of plastic in our day-to-day life without a thought can cause so much pain and damage to such a beautiful sea creature.
Save the turtle and ban plastic straws have been one of the most successful movements, as compared to just three years ago, we barely see plastic straws being used. Purchasing and usage of paper and metal straws became common practice and this movement circled largely around the impact it had on the environment, and mostly the impact it had on turtles.
Save the turtle and the Maldives
The Maldives, interestingly enough homes 5 out of 7 types of sea turtles. However, when it comes to this country turtles are just voyagers passing by, never fully settling down. While this is the case, poaching turtles is not uncommon in the Maldives and in 2016, turtle trade and consumption was banned under the Environmental Protection and Preservation Act (Number 4/93) section A. Even though this ban took a long time to bind into law, the efforts towards protecting turtles started way back in 1995.
Sea turtle spotting is a big tourist attraction in the Maldives. Whether you’re a local or a foreigner passing by, seeing turtles in their natural habitat is something truly magical. What many don’t know about turtles is the contribution they make towards keeping our oceans clean and healthy. In addition to contributing greatly to healthy coastal vegetation, leatherback turtles also consume jellyfish ensuring that their population are kept in check while green sea turtles maintain healthy seagrass.
So in many ways, turtles are like little helpers of the ocean, and in a country like the Maldives that heavily depend on the beauty of our coasts and ocean, it makes absolute sense why we need to protect turtles more than any other country.
While it is not a common practice, once every few years a few Maldivians who are not so thoughtful make headlines for killing this beautiful endangered species. Before 2023, one of the biggest cases of killing sea turtles occurred back in 2015 when some 13 Maldivians were caught killing at least 3 sea turtles in order to extract their oil.
This case took place in Laamu Atoll, one of the Atolls in the Maldives that puts the biggest efforts towards turtle conservation.
While this is seen as a major crime in the Maldives, these cases are rarely reported and fines are usually not imposed. This might explain why we only hear about these cases once every few years rather than once every few months. In the Maldives, the killing of this endangered species is finable by MVR 100 million, the lack of enforcement of the law means that people do not take this law as seriously as they should.
“Our biggest concern is that the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture is tasked with protecting marine turtles when the mandate should be under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). When something happens, who investigates? The police? The EPA? Or the ministry? The problem is that there are no uniform policies and that’s what we need, uniform policies to be enforced.”
With every case that makes headlines causes major public outrage, just like everything else in the Maldives, the news around the killing of a beautiful endangered species also makes its rounds before the next big news takes over the headlines. And we forget about it until the same thing occurs again, usually a few years later.
Just like that, on February 4, 2023, an incident was reported to the Maldives Police Services regarding a group of people killing sea turtles in order to eat them. This time, yet again, this heinous act took place in one of the Atolls that is famous for its natural beauty and marine life - Baa Atoll.
While the Police reports that this ‘very serious’ crime is being investigated, it would not be surprising if no action is taken yet again as fines being imposed for such crimes does not appear to be common in this country.
Maldives always boasts of moving towards sustainability and protection of the environment, but after so many years these words are starting to sound meaningless. With little to no action being taken in order to protect these beautiful marine creatures, how long will the Maldives get to boast about the natural beauty and marine life of the country?
