THE Worldwide Fund (WWF) is taking to educating youth of the country on the importance of turtle conservation in the hope of saving more turtles.
World Wildlife Fund coastal fisheries officer Laitia Tamata made the comments saying equipping youth with this information was important.
“It is important to have this information while one is still young because these are the future leaders of tomorrow and they will include conservation in their decision making in the future.”
Mr Tamata was the guest speaker at an awareness program on the conservation of turtles at the Carnegie Library in Suva yesterday.
“One of the main challenges that the program is facing is the enforcement of turtle harvesting bans. The decision makers out in our communities need to really understand why we are doing this.
Meanwhile, Fisheries Minister Semi Koroilavesau has pleaded with local fishermen and the public to refrain from catching and eating turtles during their breeding period.
The breeding period was from last November to May this year. This is also the period that people around the country are banned from catching or eating turtles.
Mr Koroilavesau said his ministry had received applications during this breeding period from individuals to catch turtles, however, all applications were turned down,” Mr Koroilavesau said.
“It is for the future generation, that is the main issue and we would like everyone to make appropriate decisions as we try to increase the population of turtles.
“We have received a lot of applications but we have turned them down during this period because it is only a period of six months before they can make applications again.”
