Rachael Es­pinet

Caught in a fish­er­man's net, three leatherback tur­tles nev­er made it alive to T&T's shores to nest.

On Sun­day af­ter­noon, Na­ture Seek­ers con­ser­va­tion­ists found one dead tur­tle washed up on Matu­ra Beach.

Then, on Mon­day they dis­cov­ered two more tur­tles dead on the beach.

Den­nis Sam­my, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Na­ture Seek­ers, told T&T Guardian that it was not un­usu­al to find three dead tur­tles on the beach. Typ­i­cal­ly more tur­tles wash up dur­ing the nest­ing sea­son, but be­cause of the sea­weed hin­der­ing the fish­er­men from go­ing out to sea, many tur­tles were spared, he said.

Work must be done to im­prove the tur­tles' hatch­ing rate and de­crease the death rate, he said.

Sam­my made it clear that fish­er­men go­ing out to sea were not at fault for ac­ci­den­tal deaths of the tur­tles, but he said there must be a way to im­prove the con­ser­va­tion of the tur­tles in the sea.

Ter­ry Ron­don, chair­man of the To­co/San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, is call­ing for the fish­er­men to re­tire their nets, but first they must be ad­e­quate­ly com­pen­sat­ed.

He said there are mil­lions of dol­lars be­ing in­vest­ed in tur­tle con­ser­va­tion but none for the fish­er­men who need to go to sea for their liveli­hood.

"It is sad. I think a lot of mon­ey is be­ing pumped in­to tur­tles and the fish­er­men are be­ing left out. The fish­er­men can­not stay here. They should be com­pen­sat­ed for their nets and then, and on­ly then, if they are found fish­ing in the seas, then they should be charged," Ron­don said.