Cathal Healy-Singh

In July this year thousands of leatherback turtle eggs and hatchlings were crushed when the Ministry of Works entered the beach with bulldozers to move waterlogged sand from key nesting areas. This is the third and final column in a series by guest columnist Cathal Healy-Singh, an environmental engineer with over twenty years of diverse experience who concludes his series on exactly where we went wrong..

The leatherback turtle population worldwide is rated as “critically endangered” based on “observed, estimated, inferred or suspected reduction of at least 80% over the last ten years or three generations, whichever is the longer” (Widecast, on EMA’s Web site).  Widecast also states that in Trinidad, “unique threats also include ‘Gillnetting’—suspended fishing nets in the sea, that cause some 3,000 entanglements of turtles of which one-third result in mortality (Nature Seekers, Dennis Sammy). Widecast also lists “increasing oil exploration activities off the east and north coasts,” as a unique threat to leatherback turtles.

In July this year thousands of leatherback turtle eggs and hatchlings were crushed when the Ministry of Works entered the beach with bulldozers to move waterlogged sand from key nesting areas. This is the second in a three-part series by guest columnist Cathal Healy-Singh, an environmental engineer with over twenty years of diverse experience, who continues his examination on where we went wrong.

The credibility of longstanding Grande Riviere eco-hotelier, Piero Guerrini was questioned, as was that of the EMA itself and indeed of the national character of Trinidadians towards endangered species. An investigation of Piero reveals that he has championed the protection of turtle nesting at Grand Riviere for many years. He opened Mt Plaisir in 1994, a very small, low-impact hotel and went on to receive an award for entrepreneur of the year in 1998. A 2007 UNDP case study of Mt Plaisir referred to Piero’s “avid involvement in the protection of this endangered species.
According to the study, “more than 6,000 people purchased permits to see the turtles during their nesting season in 2005.