Director
Sea Turtle Conservation Curaçao
Van den Brandhofstraat 12
Curaçao, Dutch West Indies
info@seaturtleconservationcuracao.org
sabine82@yahoo.com
Bräutigam, A. and K. L. Eckert. 2006. Turning the Tide: Exploitation, Trade and Management of Marine Turtles in the Lesser Antilles, Central America, Colombia and Venezuela. TRAFFIC International, Cambridge, UK.
The Rifbeheerverordening Curaçao (A.B. 1976 no. 48) (Curaçao Reef Management Ordinance) prohibits spearfishing and the breaking and removal of live coral. According to Sybesma (1992), in 1989, STINAPA—the National Parks Foundation for the Netherlands Antilles, known by the acronym for its Dutch name—proposed to the Island Council the granting of protection to all marine turtles, the Spiny Lobster, and Queen Conch (by means of a concept decree under Article 3 of the Curaçao Reef Management Ordinance). The action was never taken.
The Eilandelijke Ontwikkelingsplan (or EOP—Island Development Plan) (A.B. 1995, Nr.36) is a land-use zoning plan that legally designates large tracts of natural coastline as conservation habitat. This places almost full restriction on coastal development and any activity such as biological collection, hunting, digging into the substrate or removal of materials requires a permit. The Eilandsbesluit bescherming zeeschildpadden of 19 June 1996 (A.B. 1996 Nr.8), issued under the Rifbeheerverordening Curaçao, confers complete protection on all marine turtles occurring in Curaçao.
According to DOAF (2002), the latter law applies only to waters up to 60 m in depth (as the reef zone has been defined), thus suggesting that these protections do not apply in deeper waters. This omission was to be addressed in revised fisheries regulations covering the full 12-mile zone.
Debrot, A. O. and L. J. J. Pors. 1995. Sea turtle nesting activity on northeast coast beaches in Curacao, 1993. Caribbean Journal of Science. 31(3-4):333-338.
Debrot, A. O., N. Esteban, R. Le Scao, A. Caballero, and P. C. Hoetjes. 2005. New sea turtle nesting records for the Netherlands Antilles provide impetus to conservation action. Caribbean Journal of Science. 41(2):334-339.
Hoetjes, P. 2006. Netherlands Antilles Second Annual Report Form. Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles.
Synbesma, J. 1992. Sea Turtle Recovery Action Plan for the Netherlands Antilles. (K. L. Eckert, Editor) UNEP Caribbean Environment Program. CEP Technical Report No. 11. 63 pp.
Sybesma, J. and P.C. Hoetjes. (1992). First record of the Olive Ridley and of nesting by the Loggerhead turtle in Curaçao. Caribbean Journal of Science 28(1–2):103–104.
van Buurt, G. (1984). National Report for the Netherlands Antilles. Pp. 329–336. In: P. Bacon et al. (Eds). Proceedings of the First Western Atlantic Turtle Symposium, San José, Costa Rica, July 1983, III, Appendix 7. University of Miami Press.