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Turtle Project Officer, based in the Turks & Caicos Islands

MARINE CONSERVATION SOCIETY

Background: The use of marine turtles has featured in human cultures and economies throughout the world for thousands of years. Commercial exploitation of turtle populations in recent history has led to population declines, and now 5 of the 7 remaining species of marine turtle are considered either endangered, or critically endangered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). There is a tradition of marine turtle use throughout the Caribbean, including the UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) found in the region. Three of the 5 UKOTs in the Caribbean still regulate legal turtle harvests, with the TCI perhaps hosting one of the largest legitimate marine turtle harvests in the region.

This is a collaborative project between MCS and partners at the University of Exeter's Marine Turtle Research Group, the TCI Government's Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR), the School for Field Studies (SFS), TCI and Duke University. In 2007 and in response to previous MCS/MTRG work in the UKOTs, DECR invited MCS and MTRG to initiate a project to further investigate TCI's marine turtle harvest.

This project aims to:

• assess the status of breeding and foraging turtle populations in TCI waters;
• assess the scale of the TCI turtle harvest and impacts on turtle populations;
• further understand the social and economic importance of turtles in TCI;
• facilitate stakeholder participation in development of future turtle fishery management scenarios;
• assess the process of securing stakeholder engagement in turtle fishery management;
• produce detailed recommendations for fishery legislation amends and a draft turtle fishery management plan for the DECR to take forward within the TCI Government.

Click here for full details.