St Lucia Killing Turtels

[cdiver2]

This information comes second hand can anyone verify it.
Turtles are being killed on the beach in front of tourists and the lobster season has just been extended by one month at the start and end of the normal season. I thought St Lucia was one of the conservation minded country's, must dive with a DM, No gloves, or is this just to make jobs for the locals. I also heard they voted in favour of resuming whaling again?

 

[redoctober]

With reference to the story on Killing turtles and changing the lobster season in St Lucia, sadly it all happens to be true.Divers are charged a fee over and above their Dive fees, which is supposedly for the running of the Marine Conservation Areas. Nice little earner if you can get it. However, its a con. If St Lucia is serious and above all HONEST about this, they should stop this nonesense NOW.
The Lobster season opens one month early, and closes one month late. Of course, the lobsters weren,t told, which is why under size and berried lobsters are seen daily at the Fishing complexes. It seems every one but the relevant authority knows about this and has seen it first hand.
Government has not passed the relevant legislation to enforce the ban on killing of turtles, which is why it is perfectly OK to slaughter them openly on the beach and sell the meat. The shell of course is sold to some unsuspecting tourist, who promptly gets arrested at the Airport on their departure.So its OK for St Lucian Nationals to catch and kill the turtles, its just not OK for tourists to take the shell out.
Further to all this, St Lucia has voted to resume the slaughter of Whales at the last meeting of the International Whaling Commission. The reason for this sudden change of mind wouldnt have anything to do with the nice new fishing docks provided for the fishermen by the Japanese Government I dont suppose. Its all a very sick game of deception, played out to fool Diving Tourists into thinking the Government is seriously Conservation minded, while quietly behaving with complete indifference to the truth.
A prominent Dive Tour business in Castries does NOT appear on the list of approved and licenced operators, yet each day he is taking out Divers who assume that Government has licenced him and that he is therefore a bona fide Operastor. Make sure you ask to see for yourself if your Dive tour operator is licensed. If there is an accident, can you imagine the problems trying to sue.
And for those thinking of visiting, check out the level of violent crime, nearly all of which is unsolved. If my information is correct, I believe there have
been 33 murders this year alone with three months yet to go before year end.
It all needs cleaning up before the damage to the Island,s name becomes un repairable. Its time for us to lobby their Government to stop the taking of lobsters out of season, stop killing turtles, and refrain from advocating the resumption of slaughtering Whales. If St Lucia is not interested in conservation, then have the decency to be open about it and say so. Dont go on trying to deceive the tourists.
We will be watching closely to see what action is taken and if you care, then use the power of your pen to apply pressure. Its our world, and we had better start using our wallets to register our disapproval of this kind of indifference and deception.

 

[cdiver2]

With reference to the story on Killing turtles and changing the lobster season in St Lucia, sadly it all happens to be true.Divers are charged a fee over and above their Dive fees, which is supposedly for the running of the Marine Conservation Areas. Nice little earner if you can get it. However, its a con. If St Lucia is serious and above all HONEST about this, they should stop this nonesense NOW.
The Lobster season opens one month early, and closes one month late. Of course, the lobsters weren,t told, which is why under size and berried lobsters are seen daily at the Fishing complexes. It seems every one but the relevant authority knows about this and has seen it first hand.
Government has not passed the relevant legislation to enforce the ban on killing of turtles, which is why it is perfectly OK to slaughter them openly on the beach and sell the meat. The shell of course is sold to some unsuspecting tourist, who promptly gets arrested at the Airport on their departure.So its OK for St Lucian Nationals to catch and kill the turtles, its just not OK for tourists to take the shell out.
Further to all this, St Lucia has voted to resume the slaughter of Whales at the last meeting of the International Whaling Commission. The reason for this sudden change of mind wouldnt have anything to do with the nice new fishing docks provided for the fishermen by the Japanese Government I dont suppose. Its all a very sick game of deception, played out to fool Diving Tourists into thinking the Government is seriously Conservation minded, while quietly behaving with complete indifference to the truth.
A prominent Dive Tour business in Castries does NOT appear on the list of approved and licenced operators, yet each day he is taking out Divers who assume that Government has licenced him and that he is therefore a bona fide Operastor. Make sure you ask to see for yourself if your Dive tour operator is licensed. If there is an accident, can you imagine the problems trying to sue.
And for those thinking of visiting, check out the level of violent crime, nearly all of which is unsolved. If my information is correct, I believe there have
been 33 murders this year alone with three months yet to go before year end.
It all needs cleaning up before the damage to the Island,s name becomes un repairable. Its time for us to lobby their Government to stop the taking of lobsters out of season, stop killing turtles, and refrain from advocating the resumption of slaughtering Whales. If St Lucia is not interested in conservation, then have the decency to be open about it and say so. Dont go on trying to deceive the tourists.
We will be watching closely to see what action is taken and if you care, then use the power of your pen to apply pressure. Its our world, and we had better start using our wallets to register our disapproval of this kind of indifference and deception.

for confirming what I had heard and sorry for taking so long to get back to you (been out of the country)
I must say I am very surprised that there has been no posts on this I did think SB members were VERY conservation minded, my mistake.
I have dived St L and had a good time, but with all this going on I dont think I will be going back there again....There are other dive destinations in the world where conservation is taken seriously.
I also heard the Japanese also built a stadium for ST L and its not being used ?

 

[Damselfish]

I've been on the fence about going to St Lucia, because although there seem to be enough reports of good diving there doesn't seem to be a good reason for the insistence on led dives. This definitely makes me inclined to avoid the place.

 

[BradNC]

Just got back from St.Lucia. I personally did not see any of these offesnses but that doesn't mean much. Our dive outfit did recognize and enforce the no touch, no gloves no knives rule. (Sandals Resorts)

If I would have heard of this going on I would have avoided St.Lucia.

 

[Trinigordo]

I was given the no touch, no gloves, no knives rules and had a great time diving in St. Lucia. As for the stadium, I do not know if it was from the Japanese or not, but the only stadium in St. Lucia is Boursejour, and it is very much used for at least cricket. With it getting at least a test match and two one days per tour. I personally think St. Lucia is a great diving destination and suggest it to all.

Gordo

 

[redoctober]

Sorry TRINIGORDO, you obviously didnt see much of the island. At the side of the International Airport at Hewannorra in the south of the island, there is a very large and totally un missable Stadium, built by the Chinese and not the Japanese for the people of St Lucia.
Glad you enjoyed your trip down there, but these event did happen and the fact that YOU didnt see them does not mean that nothing happened, it just means you didnt see them. Like the second stadium. While on the subject,I dont suppose you heard about the Whale Shark that was caught in a tuna net illegally left out overnight, resulting in the whale shark some 37 feet long being beached and finally being cut up for meat. Seems sensible, but it would have helped if the poor thing had been dead first before being butchered. And this was done with the authority of the Fisheries Dept.

 

[Trinigordo]

Well I am from Trinidad, believe I know how **** works around here. I am not doubting that these events don't occur, my statements were meant to be more of a pick the right dive group and the experiences you have could be very good. As for the conservation mindedness of St. Lucians, it is leaps and bounds ahead of many of the CARICOM nations. I was quite shocked by the amount of rules I encountered while diving in St. Lucia, so as far as crying out in dismay is concerned I think the people of St. Lucia are moving in the right direction and it just takes time to get it done properly. As for conservation concerns maybe people should pay some more attention to fishing practices in the region.

Gordo