Starting from number six there are five new photographs on the Photo page. There will be five from Vicky tomorrow.
2 x Moth in the kitchen. Kev.
Here’s a picture with a difference, the eye of a fly. Kev.
Just remembered that I promised to send you this pic of one we caught at Denbury. Carol.
CHEEKY SQUIRRELS. THE ONE PEEKING OUT IS IN MY DRESSING GOWN POCKET. LYNNE.
Peter has moved the USA Osprey camera today. It is not in the best position that it could be and he will need to move it again in the next week or so. The house in the background belongs to his neighbour, I am not sure that they would be to happy. But at least we can now see the chicks.
I spoke to the person who looks after the Turtles on the US Virgin Islands this afternoon. Permission will be needed from US Fisheries and Wildlife Services who control the area, for the cameras to be installed. The person that I spoke to is keen about the idea, so we will have to wait and see. As you can see from the new paper report below that I got from the Internet, a camera at the location would be a good security measure, as well as letting the world see the Turtles in real life. When I spoke top Michael who we are doing the under water camera with, he told me that those involved below could well be looking at a 15 year prison sentence.
Six men charged with killing sea turtle on St. Croix
By CHRISTINE LETT
Saturday, May 24th 2008
ST. CROIX – Six Estate Whim men were arraigned in V.I. Superior Court on Friday for killing a hawksbill turtle on the south shore of the island late Thursday.
About 11:20 p.m. Thursday, police arrested; Joseph Cornelius, 37, Paul Aldrick, 24, William Dominic, 37, Ustus Harry, 35, Vibert George, 34, and Vibert George, 20. The men were each charged with harming, taking and possessing a federally protected marine sea turtle. Bail for each was set at $1,000.
According to Police Department and Planning and Natural Resources Department’s enforcement officers, the six men were driving along the south shore Thursday night when police officers spotted them. Officers initially suspected of them being immigrants entering the island illegally, according to DPNR spokesman Jamal Nielsen.
Nielsen said that when the officers approached the truck they saw the spiny lobster and 100-pound hawksbill turtle. The turtle had been speared through the head and neck and strangled with a rope.
Veterinarian Dr. Bethany Bradford and visiting students from the University of Georgia conducted an animal autopsy that determined the turtle was a healthy male close to 50 years old.
Police also spotted five lobsters – four of them juvenile lobsters – that also had been speared.
According to DPNR’s Environmental Enforcement Director Carlos Farchette the six men face a local fine of up to $400 for each juvenile spiny lobster that was speared. For the killing the hawksbill turtle, they each face up to $600 in fines and up to one year in prison.
The men likely will face federal charges for harming an endangered species. Farchette said a NOAA Fisheries representative is expected on island next week to assist with the investigation.
Federal crimes for harming endangered species carry stiffer penalties.
Claudia Lombard, U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist, said the men could each face up to $250,000 in fines and up to a year in prison.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife is one of the leading government agencies working to protect the endangered sea turtles that migrate and nest in the Virgin Islands. The goal is that someday the turtle population will grow to the point that they are no longer considered endangered.
Three of the seven species of turtles nest here – the hawksbill, green and leatherback turtle, Lombard said. Sea turtles are not only protected in the U.S. and its territories, through the federal Endangered Species Act, but globally as well, she said.
In the Virgin Islands, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, DPNR, the National Park Service and several non-government agencies have established ongoing programs throughout the territory to protect adult turtles, turtle eggs and hatchlings from threats such as poaching and predation.
“In order for the Virgin Islands to do its part in protecting turtles, we have to abide by the law,” Lombard said.