Thursday, April 15, 2010

Thursday – April 15, 2010

While the rest of America was worrying about the income tax deadline, we were in the Caribbean worrying about whether it would stop raining.  The rain wouldn’t have been an issue since we were scheduled to go out to StingRay city for some snorkeling, and ray viewing but the wind did get in the way.  We got a call that the trip had been cancelled so we slept in, then drove into Georgetown to find it as crowded as yesterday.  Four cruise ships in port will do that.  Tomorrow is a cruise ship free day.IMG_9994

In the afternoon we went out to the Turtle Farm (where we had skipped yesterday because of the Cruise Ship crowds)  based on advice that everyone would beIMG_0024-1 gone by 2:00pm.  The advice was dead on…it was really quiet.  We got our own private guide to take us through the turtle ponds.  They keep about 400 mature turtles for breeding stock on a ratio of 300 females and 100 males.  Good odds for the guys!  From that they get about 30,000 eggs a year of which about 2/3rds hatch.  In the past, they would keep a few IMG_0009 for breeding, kill a few for turtle stew and release a significant number back to the sea.  The ones they killed actually contributed the substantial revenue they needed to be able to fund the release of about 10,000 year olds every year.

With the Cayman Islands joining the Endangered Species Treaty, they were no longer able to export the turtle meat, the primary funding IMG_0014 collapsed and they could no longer afford to raise turtles for release.  Now, they have the farm open for tourists, kill some for local consumption and release a few, but very few.

They haveIMG_0015 the large tank with the mature turtles and then a few smaller tanks with the 6, 12 and 18 month olds for the tourist to observe and handle.

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