Ocean Sentry
Officials from the Costa Rican Coast Guard and the Ministry of Public Security confiscated 37 kilograms of green turtle meat on Wednesday in Cineguita, a city in the province of Limón on the Caribbean coast.
Agents found the meat in the back room of a house in Barrio Cristóbal Colón, along with a 12 gauge shotgun which they believe was used to kill the turtles.
A suspect has been detained and is facing criminal charges.
Costa Rican law prohibits killing and selling turtles because the animal is on the endangered species list.
But along the Caribbean Coast, the reptile has long been used as a source of food and even of luxury items. Residents often use the turtle’s meat as an ingredient in soups, string parts of its shell on necklaces and bracelets, and extract the acid from its skin to make hand creams and moisturizers.
Ingrid Luna, a spokeswoman for the Public Security Ministry, could not say how many cases of turtle meat confiscations have occurred this year, but she said police are receiving increasing numbers of calls each month about the illegal turtle trade.
“This region is known for this, but even more now with the (hard) times we are in,” she said. “Jobs have been lost in this area, so people dedicate themselves to capturing and selling turtles.”
(From ticotimes.net, Costa Rica, by Mike McDonald)
