Turtle Benefit Ball 2008

  • Join us at the Annual Turtle Benefit Ball, Saturday 7th June, Tradewinds Entertainment Center, Suva, Fiji, to show support for our cultural icon
  • Proudly sponsored by Pure Fiji, Fiji Water, Sonaisali, Musket Cove, Beachcomber, Lagoon Resort, and Pearl Resorts
  • » Find out more

5 things you can do

Save a turtle

  1. Dispose of plastic bags wisely - turtles tends to mistake plastics for jellyfish (food)
  2. Refrain from illegally purchasing a serve of 'vonu kovu' or the animal itself
  3. Discourage the need to supply turtle meat at festivities
  4. Allow turtles to nest without being disturbed
  5. Refrain from taking turtle eggs

Turtle Awareness

Turtle Facts

  • A dinosaur's contemporary » Turtles have been around for millions of years; their ancestors shared the world with dinosaurs
  • 1 turtle breeds in every 1,000 eggs » It is estimated that only one out of 1,000 turtle eggs actually produces a turtle that lives long enough to breed
  • A turtle represents Pacific unity » Turtles connect Pacific island countries, joined in spirit by the deep blue of the Pacific ocean.
  • Turtles can live up to 60-70 years!
  • Turtles can travel up to 3,000 kilometres across the sea.
  • Six of the seven species of sea turtles in the world are found in the Pacific

Turtles are threatened. If we dont look after them, they will become extinct, like the dinosaurs!

Turtle news...

protect a cultural icon

the endangered sea turtle

The Ancient Mariners

Sea turtles outlived dinosaurs and one can only imagine the events that this ancient mariner has witnessed through evolving times. Sadly, some turtle species are on the brink of extinction due to thoughtless human activity and a belief that there is an endless supply, constantly appearing when the need arises. Unfortunately, scientific evidence disproves this belief and the grim bottom line is that if nothing is done now, these creatures could disappear forever. Imagine our marine environment without turtles surfacing to breathe or beaches of numerous islands without turtle eggs.

Year of the Sea Turtle

2006 is the official Year of the Sea Turtle (YOST) within the Indian Ocean and South-East Asian region by ISOEA (the Indian Ocean South-East Asian Marine Turtle MOU for conservation of marine turtles and their habitats)declared by Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and is a renewed commitment by SPREP member countries and international and national NGOs working within the SPREP member countries to conserve the endangered marine turtles.

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Following Lady Vini

Lady Vini, a female hawksbill turtle was tagged in Samoa in March 2006.

Lady Vini, a female hawksbill turtle was tagged in Samoa in March 2006, to mark the launch of the 2006 Pacific Year of the Sea Turtle (YOST) as part of a monitoring programme that tracks the movements of 4 turtles throughout the region. Her 7 month journey has taken her from Samoa to American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and Wallis and Futuna before passing through the feeding ‘hot-spot’ of Fiji.

Her last known satellite transmission was from waters off Vanua Levu. Moving around one month per country makes her travels a truly remarkable journey!

» Lady Vini arrives in Fiji

Turtles in the pacific

Our objectives across the entire pacific region are to work with communities to ensure sustainable traditional harvesting of turtles, reduce commercial harvesting and incidental fatalities of turtles.

Fiji

Populations of green turtles are estimated to have declined globally by around 60% over the last 50 years. Fiji is an important foraging ground for green turtles. Hence the urgent need to conserve them.

Fiji boasts four of the seven global sea turtle species. All seven species have been listed as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN Red List and studies have shown turtle populations are on the decline in the Pacific Region.

Fiji currently has a 5 year Moratorium (2004 2008) which bans the commercial harvest and sale of sea turtles, but the sale and consumption of turtle meat is still common. WWF Regional Marine Programme works with partners, such as the Departments of Environment and Fisheries, to create awareness on the regulations that offer sea turtles protection within Fijis waters.

Solomons Islands, PNG and Indonesia

Recently, WWF – Solomon Islands under its Bismarck Solomon Sea Ecoregion initiative, has facilitated the meeting of national governments of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands to undertake collaboration with conservation NGOs and the scientific community to protect and manage the Western Pacific leatherback turtle. These three countries refined a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which is a commitment by the three nations together with NGO partners to implement long overdue protection and management of leatherback foraging, breeding and migratory corridors.

Solomon Islands is an important foraging and breeding grounds for green, hawksbill and leatherback turtles. Hence there is an urgent need to conserve them, so that future generations of Solomon Islanders can see and enjoy marine turtles.

The Solomon Islands 1998 fisheries regulations bans the commercial harvest and sale of sea turtles, but the sale and consumption of turtle meat is still common as subsistence by local communities.

Given the severe threat to the Pacific’s sea turtle populations, SPREP and partners such as WWF are calling for local communities, governments, intergovernmental organisations, the fishing industry, fisheries and tourism authorities, donors, NGOs, institutes and organizations, to lend their full support and collaborate and to protect and manage marine turtles.