Indian Ocean - South-East Asian Marine Turtle Memorandum of Understanding

Welcome to the IOSEA Marine Turtle MoU Website!

The IOSEA Marine Turtle Memorandum of Understanding is an intergovernmental agreement that aims to protect, conserve, replenish and recover marine turtles and their habitats of the Indian Ocean and South-East Asian region, working in partnership with other relevant actors and organisations.

	PROFILE OF THE MONTH


	A review of the development of the TED for Indian fisheries ... READ ON

	HEADLINES	Click for: MONTHLY OVERVIEW


LATEST:	15 March 2010
Olive Ridley turtles begin nesting at second Orissa beach Thousands of Olive Ridley turtles crawled ashore from the Bay of Bengal Monday, after a month’s delay, at the Rushikulya beach in Orissa’s Ganjam district to lay their eggs.

MESSAGE BOARD

» IOTN Issue-11: special issue on the SWIO

» Link to the MEA Bulletin on activities of multilateral environmental agreements

» IOSEA 2009 Year-End Review and Look Ahead

» Journal du Parc Marin de Mohéli (Comoros) is available

» UNEP Press Releases on current environmental issues

» Internships at the IOSEA Secretariat, Bangkok

» Visit the Site Map to get the most from this website

UPDATE: Endangered marine turtles rescued in Bangladesh

11 Mar 2010

Olive ridley turtles being kept befor selling The following report comes via the Centre for Advanced Research in Natural Resources & Management (CARINAM) in Bangladesh.

During its ongoing monitoriing program, the CARINAM team found seven Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) being illegally kept at a fish trading house in Rupsha, Khulna. The turtles were waiting to be sold to traders who would slaughter them and sell the meat. The team informed the Forest Department officials and with their support confiscated the marine turtles and released them in the Bay of Bengal. More »

Turtles on the loose ... What have they become?

19 Feb 2010

Photo c/o Eric Lancelot Bycatch is one of many threats to large marine vertebrates that reach late maturity and have low reproductive rates, among which figure marine turtles. Marine turtles are often found entangled or hooked in the fishing gear, and in some cases still alive when captured. However their mortality following their release back to sea by fishermen is not well determined.

Some fishing gears have been modified (TED, circle hook etc.) in order to reduce bycatch. Yet, not all countries use them and the numbers of turtles estimated to die because of bycatch is still alarmingly high. In 2000, the number of loggerhead and leatherback turtles accidentally caught was estimated respectively at 200,000 and 50,000 worldwide (Lewison et al., 2004). More »

Survey of Bangladesh turtle meat trade

11 Feb 2010

Olive ridley turtle collected and sold in local market The following report is from the Centre for Advanced Research in Natural Resources & ‎Management (CARINAM) which has been conducting a survey on the status of critically ‎endangered turtles of Bangladesh. ‎

During the survey they found that Olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea – Local name: ‎Jolpai kochhop) are collected by fishermen fishing in the Sunderbans and are sold to beparis ‎in local markets such as Bajua, adjacent to the Dangmari Forest Beat Office. From Bajua ‎Bazaar local traders (forias) buy the turtles, slaughter them and sell the meat in Bajua, ‎Podderganj, and Digraj weekly markets. More »