Barbados’ endangered sea turtles are facing one of their most perilous years yet, according to Carla Daniel, director of the Barbados Sea Turtle Project. Poaching has made a troubling comeback, and development pressures are closing in on key nesting beaches.
Speaking after being named the local winner of the relaunched CIBC Unsung Heroes Programme, Daniel described 2025 as presenting “a myriad of threats” for the species.
“We had signs that people are once again poaching turtles. We had a turtle head that was discovered up at Harrison’s Point,” she said.
“This is exceedingly important because it’s one thing when we have issues like climate change impacts, but people taking up weapons and deliberately killing turtles, that is inexcusable. It is illegal to hurt turtles, to take turtle eggs — there’s a $50 000 fine or two years in prison.”
She also stressed the importance of protecting undeveloped beaches that support fragile ecosystems. “Everyone has been in awe at the videos I’ve been circulating recently with thousands of hermit crabs going down to the shore to lay their eggs, and the area where they’re able to do that is at Maycock’s Bay — one of the few undeveloped beaches left.”
Daniel warned that connections between forested areas and gullies leading to the sea are rapidly disappearing. “The reason you don’t see it more commonly is because there are not many connections left,” she said.
“When I think about the fact that that is one of the areas recently slated for development, or that Drill Hall, which gets a quarter of all the hawksbill nesting on this island, is also under murmurs of development — it’s deeply worrying. These are critically endangered animals.”
She said that environmental protection is still not being taken seriously enough. “There are all of these really crucial connections that our environment is the foundation of, and we are perhaps not yet taking it as seriously as we should.”
Daniel also underscored the turtles’ historical and cultural significance. “When the British and Portuguese came to this region, they talked about walking on the backs of turtles to get ashore. They were here long before these islands were colonised — they’re the original Barbadians. It’s disheartening that within our lifetime we may see the last of them.”
While the Barbados Sea Turtle Project rescues thousands of hatchlings annually, Daniel said many more are lost.
“When we say that we rescue over 60 000 hatchlings every year, it’s not a brag, it is a cry of despair, because we can only imagine the thousands we are not able to rescue; the ones that go inland, are predated, crushed on the road, or fall into holes and slowly starve to death.”
Despite more than 30 years of conservation work, she warned that the species is now at a critical juncture.
“There is way more to be done, because at this point we are reaching what essentially is the tipping point for turtles on this side,” Daniel said.
(SB)
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