Parks Manager
Saba Conservation Foundation
P.O. Box 18, The Bottom
Saba, Dutch West Indies
Work: 599 416-3295
Cell: 599 416-5750
sabapark.manager@gmail.com
sabapark.communications@gmail.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.
Until April 2001, when the National Nature Conservation Ordinance was fully implemented and, inter alia, protected marine turtles, exploitation of marine turtles was regulated under Article 5 of the Eilandsverordening Marien Milieu Saba Ab. 1987 No. 10 (Saba’s Marine Environmental Ordinance (MEO)) of 25 June 1987, which:
• prohibits the capture of marine turtles by foreigners (defined as non-residents of Saba (D. Kooistra, in litt., 25
October 2004));
• restricts the catch of turtles to two animals per person, per year;
• prohibits the capture of female turtles from April to November;
• prohibits the disturbance of nests and the removal of eggs; and
• requires that all turtles caught be reported to the Saba Marine Park Authorities.
These provisions of the MEO have never been repealed (DOAF, 2002) but are considered to have been superseded by protections afforded by the National Nature Conservation Ordinance. The MEO provides for violations of the Ordinance to be subject to penalties of a monetary fine not to exceed a maximum of 5000 Netherlands Antillian guilders (ANG5000) and/or one month in goal and confiscation of the equipment (spear gun, car, boat, etc.) used in committing the offence (Articles 17 and 20). In addition, the MEO (Article 19) provides that, in addition to law enforcement officers as designated in the Civil Code, the persons in charge of managing the marine park and other persons nominated as such by the Island Resolution Containing General Provisions (IRCGP) may be charged with law enforcement.
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.
Swinkels, J. L. 2004. Status of the Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) on the Dutch Caribbean Islands of St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and Saba.
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.