WHILE climate change, pollution and habitat loss threaten endangered land and sea turtles worldwide, the situation is even more dire in Jamaica where poaching of the animals for human consumption is a grim reality, despite it being potentially toxic.

People in some communities consume the meat as a delicacy, according to terrestrial biologist Damion Whyte, who said the illegal activity has been going on “for generations”.

“I think some people are becoming aware that you shouldn’t be doing it, but when they are aware they go more underground,” Whyte told the Jamaica Observer. “I’ve been there where people send pictures on
Facebook and WhatsApp of a turtle leg, or they talk about the shell, or they talk about how they grate the penis in the soup.”

Jamaica is home to four species of sea turtles that frequently visit its waters — the green, loggerhead, leatherback, and the more popular hawksbill turtle.

“At this time, they [Hawksbill] are vulnerable, and people go and catch them — catch them because they want the meat; catch them because they want their eggs… These turtles are on the endangered species list for the world. So you might see a couple of them come up on the beach and think there’s a lot — no. And, it takes several years for them to reach that adult size,” Whyte explained.

Warning that it is “totally illegal” to poach, consume or even keep most turtle species at your home, excluding the red-eared sliders which are popular on the pet market, Whyte pointed to a recent incident involving native freshwater turtles that were found at a Clarendon residence.

“Now in Jamaica, we have one native freshwater turtle [the Jamaican slider turtle]. There was an incident in Clarendon where the police arrested a gentleman for having these turtles at his yard. So by right, you should not have these turtles at your house. If you have them over time, contact NEPA [National Environment and Planning Agency]. Without a permit, you can’t have them at your house. It’s totally illegal,” he warned.

Turtle meat is often prepared through stewing, jerking, currying, or simmering in a soup. One fisherman from Salt River, Clarendon, gave a rundown of how the meat is usually prepared.

“You cook him just like how you would cook goat, cow [and] chicken. They say you have to boil water and strip off the yellow something off him — you have to take off those off him and him have some things in him where you have to prepare him and take out of him like some slime,” he shared.

Noting that he does not participate in the poaching nor consumption of the animal, the fisherman of 10 years emphasised the importance of proper preparation.

“You can’t just chop them up like the chicken and cook him — him a guh bitter. Him a go have a bitter taste. If you don’t know how to clean it, it don’t make sense to trouble it,” he said.

Locals also use the turtle eggs to make a punch, which they believe to be a powerful aphrodisiac, or the so-called strongback that boosts sexual performance.

“You see the egg? They say the egg makes you strong,” the fisherman continued. “It’s like when you blend up some juice at home with Guinness, Magnum, and peanuts…You break the turtle egg and blend it out in the blender, because the turtle egg thick…They say, overall, it builds up your sperm system like if you want to have sex and you need children, that’s how it helps you.”

However, turtle expert Melvyn Tennant, who operates the project Sea Turtles Jamaica in Oracabessa, St Mary, dispelled the belief as a myth.

“They believe that the eggs mixed with rum and Guinness — turtle punch — is like Viagra. It’s absolute rubbish,” Tennant told the Sunday Observer.

Whyte added, “I would put on the table and say that if you need aphrodisiac or your back needs strengthening, you can go get Cialis or Viagra, or you can also go do some [other] punch and leave the turtle alone. Majority of the time, these are traditions that have passed over the years, and I can’t tell you any truth to it but these guys would swear to it and tell you that it’s the greatest thing.”

However, Tennant has been successful in combatting the turtle punch myth and reducing the instance of turtle poaching in Oracabessa.

Since launching his project in 2005, Tennant has not lost a turtle nest, nor have any large turtles been poached along the Gibraltar Beach in 14 years, he said.

“The reason I got started was because the locals killed every turtle that came up and dug up every nest the first year I was here. I came in 2003 and I couldn’t understand. We kept finding turtle shells on the beach that had been stripped of all the meat,” he explained.

He stressed that cooperating with the fishermen and getting residents on board have been essential to his success.

“Anybody touches a turtle around here, I get two or three phone calls from the local guys that tell me what’s going on, and since I’ve spent 12 years on the Fish Sanctuary Board, I know most of the fishermen and they all know me.

“After Hurricane Beryl, the fishing in Old Harbour Bay area was terrible, so a fishing boat came around fishing from Port Maria and they saw a turtle in the water, and they got a net and tried to catch it but they didn’t catch it because two other fishermen ran them…Now when you get the fishermen protecting the turtles and you get your population on board, you don’t worry about what goes on, but we’re here all the time. I don’t have to threaten anybody anymore,” Tennant said.

Further to the legal implications, Tennant is warning that consuming turtle meat can have dire consequences. He pointed to a December 2, 2024 report in which three people died and at least 32 were hospitalised in the Philippines after eating an endangered sea turtle cooked in stew.

“The problem is that now the predominant turtle is the hawksbill, and they’re actually prized for their shell because you can’t eat the meat. One of the messages that needs to get across is that if people try and serve you turtle stew or soup, it could be poisonous…You can’t cook out the toxins. You know fishermen won’t eat barracuda and yellow jackets at certain times of the year — same thing. They eat the same poisonous sponges that poison them, and it affects our nervous system and it’s very difficult to get rid of,” Tennant explained.

Poachers are not the only threat to turtles. Globally, they continue to be significantly impacted by climate change. The sex of a turtle is determined by the temperature of its nest, and with rising global temperatures, sex ratios have been skewed, leading to an increase in female turtles.

“If the temperature of the nest is above 28.3 degrees, everything in that nest will be female. If it’s below that, they will be male. There is now a world shortage of males,” explained Tennant.

In 2023, his team partnered with Tufts University in the United States, using data loggers to track the sand temperature at different points along the beach and get a better feel of the sex ratios of hatchlings in Jamaica.

“So we have done that all over the beach and we now know that we’ve got probably, I would say, 25 per cent of our nest, minimum, are all male. The world estimate at the moment is one or two per cent, so we are doing remarkably better,” he told the Sunday Observer.

The technology, along with studying the turtle incubation timeline, has also helped them to implement control mechanisms.

“We can move nests off our beach to other places. The sex, which is set by temperature, happens between the 20th and 40th day, so if we put the nest at the back of the beach and leave it for say 40/45 days when we can move it to another beach, they’re going to get all males,” he said.

The Sunday Observer’s on-the-ground checks uncovered participation in the practice of poaching and consuming turtles in areas such as Portmore, St Catherine, Rocky Point and Salt River in Clarendon, Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland, and Parottee in St Elizabeth.

One beach worker, while praising the taste of turtle meat, shared that having the right connections is key to accessing the illegal meat.

“You cyaa tell nuhbody seh you a sell the soup, you will get lock up; is who you know,” he said, “You done know, one coulda get caught up inna yuh net and wah you a go do? You ever see the meat yet? Scrape it up, tek him out of him back suh…But dem thing deh delicate, police will lock yuh up.”

Alex Simpson, the assistant science officer and lead enforcement officer for the Caribbean-Coastal Area Management (CCAM), confirmed that the practice is widespread in Jamaica.

“It’s islandwide. There are certain groups that specialise in the capture of it; there are certain groups that specialise in the cooking of it and they all know each other, they talk to each other and they keep it very, very hush-hush…Besides the drive to consume the meat, there is also the encouragement to catch it because the price of it is very high,” Simpson said.

“You go to specific restaurants and you ask for specific things. So, for example, you live in a fishing community like Rocky Point or Old Harbour Bay, residents in those communities would know precisely where to go in order to purchase it,” he added.

Turtles are protected under the Fisheries Act and the Wild Life Protection Act (WLPA), which is enforced by the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) Act. Under the Acts, it is an offence to have a sea turtle or any part of the animal in one’s possession. If you are caught in possession of the animal, you are liable to a fine of up to $100,000 or 12 months’ imprisonment under the WLPA, or up to $3 million under the Fisheries Act.

Noting that CCAM has busted many illegal operations involving turtles, crocodiles and fish, Simpson explained, “Both laws operate by themselves independently, however, in most cases what happens is that when an individual is charged they are charged under both laws. For the Fisheries Act, the charge is up to $3 million if you’re caught in possession of the animal. However, it’s not just the animal, it’s any part of the animal.

“So say, for example, you get the entire carcass of a turtle and you cut it up into 20 pieces, you are no longer being charged for one turtle. You are being charged for 20 pieces of that turtle and then you are being charged under both the NRCA Act and the Fisheries Act, so it’s no longer 20, but 40 charges are now against you,” he added.

Recently, the House of Representatives and the Senate approved amendments to the NRCA Act and WLPA, to allow for significant increases in fines and custodial sentences. Under the proposed changes, corporate bodies could face fines up to $10 million, while individuals could face fines up to $5 million or up to five years in prison, depending on the severity of the offence, as determined by the Supreme Court and parish courts.

But, while he welcomed the updating of the law, Simpson said more needed to be done.

“I do not think enough is being done to protect our local species. We simply don’t have the resources that are necessary.

“Our enforcement is stretched thin and, I mean, sure, NEPA is the overarching body, however, your laws are only as good as you are enforcing them. So we have good laws, yes, but as it pertains to enforcing them, that’s where we fall short,” he said.

He explained that raising social awareness is crucial to encouraging people to comply with the law and reducing the issue of islandwide poaching of protected species.

“The primary thing is social awareness because, irrelevant of the fact that you’re trying to encourage people not to kill the animals, to not encroach on their habitat, if the people in the area don’t buy into the vision, you’re always going to get a fight back and it will be harder for you to do your job. So public awareness about the importance of the species and why they are protected, and why they should not be consumed [is crucial],” he said.

Next week, the Sunday Observer looks at another endangered species.

Melvyn Tennant operates Oracabessa Bay Sea Turtle Project in St Mary.