In Fiji, hunters have become conservators of turtles

YADUA ISLAND, Fiji – Pita Qarau pulled his boat next to a turtle, which was trying desperately to flee the buzz of the boat's noisy engine. The turtle, a female hawksbill, was surprisingly fast, capable of a top speed of about 15 mph.

But Qarau knew he could win the sprint. He lost the turtle momentarily, then circled back. Finally, as the turtle slowed down, he positioned the boat near the fatigued animal. He threw his engine into neutral and dived into the water.

Seconds later, he re-emerged, holding on to a chaotic mess of flapping flippers.

Not long ago, a catch like this would have meant turtle for dinner, but Qarau would let this one go. He checked the turtle's health, but he was unable to tag it, as he had intended, because he had run out of tags.

Fiji has imposed a moratorium on harvesting turtles, and while the ban has been observed inconsistently around the island nation, some people like Qarau have weaned themselves from eating turtle, which is considered a delicacy, and dedicated themselves to conservation.

"The number of turtles were dropping and the size, you can't see any big ones, only small," he said. "That is why I change myself."

Qarau, 53, a native of Yadua, a small, remote island in Fiji's north, is a volunteer participating in a program by the World Wildlife Fund that has helped replenish the turtle population after decades of decline.

Traditionally turtles were eaten at major events, like a wedding or a chief's funeral. As traditions eroded in recent decades, some people began to think of turtles and their eggs as an everyday food to catch and sell.

Climate change and habitat loss have also placed pressure on the turtle population. The conservation status of the turtles common to Fiji's waters — green, olive ridley, leatherback, hawksbill and loggerhead — ranges from vulnerable to critically endangered.

In Fiji, a South Pacific nation of more than 300 islands, communities play a central role in managing their immediate waters.

Qarau's commitment to replenishing the turtle stock involves monitoring them twice a week. He walks the beaches searching for turtle tracks, which could indicate a nest. He and others are trained to dig into nests and record their contents: hatched eggs vs. duds.

When the monitoring program began in Yadua in 2010, only six turtles nested on its beaches. Four years later there were 29 nests. At a monitoring site in Kavewa Island, no turtle nests were found in 2010; almost 70 were identified four years later.

The Fiji government imposed a temporary ban on turtle harvesting in 1995 to halt the decline. The moratorium is set to expire next year.

Even though the ban was first imposed more than 20 years ago, it has been enforced only sporadically, and few, if any, violators have been fined or sent to prison, according to Kiji Vukikomoala, a lawyer at the Environmental Law Association.

"The general feeling is these are low-priority cases because the penalties are so low," Vukikomoala said. Someone convicted of killing a turtle faces a maximum fine of about $240 and up to three months in jail.

The endorsement of a chief is often crucial to involving communities in conservation, said Michael Donoghue, an adviser on threatened and migratory species at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme.

"If communities don't want to do it, it doesn't matter what the law says," he said. "Especially in remote areas, it is unlikely to happen."

The World Wildlife Fund plans to press for an extension of the moratorium when it runs out next year.