Cayman Brac

[Vic McAlister]

CI doesn't even allow divers to use gloves.... to help discourage divers from touch the habitants. If you are cold, get out of the water.

Even lobsters are protected in the "re-growth" restricted areas around the islands.

The DM's that we had from Reef Divers, had been in the waters/reefs to give you a great experience with out disruping the delicate ecosystems.

Go and have a blast... I cant wait to get back.

Vic

 

[parrotman]

Sorry but I beg to disagree, the boat captain on our diveboat showed us a turtle trap and explained how they are used. He told us that the native Caymanians are allowed to hunt turtles. I personally saw several of the traps and had a native show them too us.

 

[scubajoe]

Native Caymainian harvesting turtles is a part of thier culture. The limited number they take doesn't even come close to offsetting the number of turtles released by the turtle farm. The survival rate for farmed turtles is way above the "natural" rate. Turtles are not released as hatchlings where they are easy prey for birds and aquatic creatures. The relatively small number of turtles harvested has no effect on the turtle population.
Cayman is the only place I would eat turtle if I ever chose to do that. It is on the menu at the snack bar at the turtle farm. The harvesting of shrimp that we eat in this country and long line fishing kill and waste many times more turtles then the Cayman Islanders harvest.

 

[parrotman]

The point remains that they do kill turtles. Regardless of whether you or anyone thinks that this is insignificant, it still remains a fact that they are killing an endangered species. Being part of their native culture does not make it right. You can certainly excercise your right to eat turtle while in the Caymans if you choose. And I can excerise my right to boycott a nation that kills an endangered species.

 

[scubajoe]

So do you eat shrimp, tuna or swordfish? If so you are killing turtles.

Joe

 

[scubajoe]

Sorry about the thread hijacking hammondhe.

Joe

 

[scubajoe]

http://faolex.fao.org/cgi-bin/faole...=link&table=result&lang=eng&format_name=@ERAL

Link to Cayman law regarding turtles.

Joe

 

[sharkdiver00]

Not to make this worse, but... do you eat tuna (other than albacore), swordifish, or shark? Have you started requesting residency at a different country than this?

 

[parrotman]

Questioning whether or not I eat shrimp, shark or tuna is such an ignorant response to this that I'm not even going to bother with it.
Justifying the slaughter of an endangered species by saying it is part of the "culture" would be the same as justifying the slaughter of gorillas for their feet just because it is a part of some cultures to use the body parts for aphrodasiacs. Or the Killing of rhinos for thier horns, or the killing of elephants for their ivory. No different. All of these animals are bred in captivity so does that make it right?

 

[Damselfish]

Questioning whether or not I eat shrimp, shark or tuna is such an ignorant response to this that I'm not even going to bother with it.
Justifying the slaughter of an endangered species by saying it is part of the "culture" would be the same as justifying the slaughter of gorillas for their feet just because it is a part of some cultures to use the body parts for aphrodasiacs. Or the Killing of rhinos for thier horns, or the killing of elephants for their ivory. No different. All of these animals are bred in captivity so does that make it right?

It's not at all an ignorant response, the point is that most things are more complicated then they would appear. Bycatch is a big problem, and fishing for certain species affects others. It's certainly your right to avoid Cayman because of this, but the fact is that the situation is a bit different there than the US, and ranting about catching sea turtles in Cayman would be a touch hypocritical if you eat those fish where the process of catching them often kills sea turtles.