WHILE the sighting of green turtles may be common in Fiji waters, five other species in the region are facing a downward trend with some on the brink of extinction, says Ika Bula consultancy principal consultant Shritika Prakash.
Ms Prakash is conducting a four-day turtle monitoring training at the South Sea Island in the Mamanuca Group.
The initiative was made possible through the support of the Pacific BioScapes Programme, a European Union Funded action managed and implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
Ms Prakash said while the global status of green turtles had been downgraded to least concern, the outlook for the Pacific remained uncertain.
“For the Pacific, we still have a lot of knowledge gaps,” she said.
“We are not ready to say they are in the least concern category at the moment.”
The situation is even more dire for the hawksbill turtle, which is officially listed as critically endangered.
“For hawksbill, there’s so much that needs to be done in order to understand if we are having an increasing trend, or if it’s stable or decreasing.”
Project manager Etienne Delattre added that the gravity of the situation was often lost on the general public.
“It’s not well known from the lay people outside of the conservation world. We are extremely worried about the remaining populations of some turtle species.”
