Dead Turtles Appear on Beaches of Rivas, Nicaragua
Environmentalist denounces that the finding is the result of trawl fishing near two important wildlife reserves.
HAVANA TIMES – On the beaches of Astillero, La Flor and El Ostional, in the municipalities of Tola and San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua, dozens of dead turtles have appeared during recent days, a fact that environmentalist Amaru Ruiz associates with trawling in the area.
Ruiz, who headed the now defunct Fundacion del Rio, denounced through his social networks that the dead turtles belonged to the Paslama and Torita species, both in danger of extinction.
“The regime of (Daniel) Ortega and (Rosario) Murillo is allowing trawling on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, which is causing the death of sea turtles,” said the environmentalist on his Twitter account.
Ruiz’s complaint is extremely serious, since the area where the dead turtles were found is he La Flor Wildlife Reserve, and in that same coastal strip at the Rio Escalante-Chacocente Wildlife Reserve, where thousands of turtles arrive every year to lay their eggs.
According to the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA), between August 18 and 20, 2606 sea turtles arrived to La Flor.
Trawling is a method that consists of throwing a huge nets from boats, which reaches the deepest part of the beach. The boats then drag all kinds of marine species, and at the end they pull up the net to collect the fish and throw away the other marine species that are of no use to them.
Although trawling is legal in Nicaragua, it is method questioned by environmentalists because of the damage it causes to the marine ecosystem.