SUPERIORITY COMES FROM CHARACTER, NOT BLOOD

By : Harun Yahya

Darwin's portraying human beings as a developed species of animal and his presentation of some races as not yet having completed their development, and as species closer to animals was intensely dangerous and destructive in human history. Those who took this claim of Darwin's as their guide mercilessly oppressed other races, forced them to live under the harshest conditions, and even exterminated them.

Bryan Appleyard, author of the book Brave New Worlds, explains the tyrannical mentality underlying racism, and the results of it, in this way:
The point is that once people decide you are a lesser creature for whatever reason, either superstitious or scientific, there appears to be no limit to what cruelty they may inflict on you. And they are likely to inflict that cruelty feeling fully justified, because it is but a small step from believing another human being is inferior to believing that he is bad, dangerous, or threatening to 'superior' beings. Indeed, some may generalize the point even further and insist that all 'inferior' beings are dangerous because they threaten the life or health of the entire human race. They may then advocate sterilization, restrictions on marriage, or even murder to prevent the outcast's assault on the integrity of the species. (Bryan Appleyard, Brave New Worlds, Harper Collins Publishers, London 1999, pp. 49-50)
All human beings, however, are created the same. Human beings carry the soul God breathed into them. Every human being, with no racial difference, thinks, feels, loves, suffers, feels excitement, and knows love, affection, and compassion. And every human being also knows tyranny, contempt, and difficulty. For this reason, all though history, those who believe people of other races to be semi-developed animals and mistreat them, those who offend, oppress, exploit even one person, and those who support these practices with the false evidence and theories they produced, have committed a great sin in their ignorance.

In our time there exist cultures of relatively undeveloped human societies. These people have all human characteristics, but they lack those criteria which, from technical and cultural aspects, generally rule the world. But in each one there exist all the features, customs, and habits common to humanity. Those with hidden agendas, and those who have seen advantage in racism, enthusiastically embraced Darwin's theory and accepted these people, who were no different from other humans, as members of an inferior race and even animals. As a result of this view, even in our day people have emerged who oppress and despise backward people and communities on the grounds they have not evolved sufficiently.

God, however, completely forbids racism. In God's sight the only superiority is a person's character, his avoiding all types of sin and rebellion, degeneracy and deviation, and the superior morality deriving from his piety. Apart from his piety no human can have any superiority to any other deriving from any of his features. God reveals this in a verse:

Mankind! We created you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you might come to know each other. The noblest among you in God's sight is the one with the most piety (who best performs his duty to God). God is All-Knowing, All-Aware. (Surat al-Hujurat: 13).

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EMOTIONALISM HAS NO PLACE IN RELIGION

By : Harun Yahya

It is true that Allah (God) may test a person in this world with certain difficulties and worries. However, the believer does not give in to melancholy and pessimism when he is faced with such anxieties; he does not react emotionally. He knows that Allah is trying him to see how he will behave in difficulty, and that the solution is not to turn to weeping or sorrowful regret. The solution lies in seeking help from Allah, "Who responds to the oppressed when they call on Him and removes their distress" (Qur'an, 27:62), relying only on Him, and in being certain that Allah will hear his prayers and grant his requests. This is the promise of Allah to His servants:

Yes, the friends of Allah will feel no fear and will know no sorrow: those who believe and have done their duty, there is good news for them in the life of the world and in the hereafter. There is no changing the words of Allah. That is the great victory! (Surah Yunus: 62-64)
Moreover, Allah creates such trying moments of anxiety and difficulty for a very special reason. When someone looks with the eyes of faith, and sees the reasons behind all the beauty that Allah has created, he will be moved to compassion, and his contentment will increase. Therefore, submission to Allah brings a sense of calm to the spirit, and allows one to live with peace of mind.
Emotionalism, on the other hand, completely alienates people from the awareness of being in Allah's hands, and leads them to react to situations with excessive pleasure, or exaggerated pain and sorrow. Allah explains in the Qu'ran the wavering of such people between hopelessness and arrogance, and the difference between them and believers:
If We let man taste mercy from Us, and then take it away from him, he is despairing, ungrateful; but if We let him taste blessings after hardship has afflicted him, he says, "My troubles have gone away," and he is overjoyed, boastful except for those who are steadfast and do right actions. They will receive forgiveness and a large reward. (Surah Hud: 9-11)
Emotionalism shows itself most often in women as sadness, pessimism, weeping and whinniness, while in men it appears generally as anger, irascibility, and aggression. For example, when an emotional man sees that his place in a parking garage has been taken by someone else, he will shout and kick the intruding car. Or, if someone bumps into him on the sidewalk by mistake, he will easily lose his temper. Or, if his son or daughter left the house and forgot the key inside, if a waiter is late bringing the bill, if a secretary makes him wait on telephone, or if he is irritated by traffic, he will say the first thing that comes to his mind. Confronted with problems that a rational person could deal with easily, even without occupying his mind with the hundreds of details involved, an emotional person would react in an unnecessarily exaggerated manner. And, most of the time, he merely harms himself and ends up humiliated.
Emotionalism in men takes the form of anger and irascibility, and is often regarded as the quality of a "tough-guy" or "macho." This psychology is merely an amalgam of anger and romanticism, while most of those affected by it are unbalanced, and have a tendency to lose their temper, or "go off the handle." As a result of a moment of rashness, they may hurt or injure someone, or even kill; their victim could easily be a total stranger. Pages of newspapers are often filled with the crimes and offences committed by this type of personality. An evening that might have begun pleasantly could suddenly come to an end when an emotional man becomes irritated and hits a friend or someone near him. Walking in the street he may pull out a knife and stab some unknown person who "looked at him sideways." For that one minute, he may give in to his passions, and then end up spending the rest of his life in prison. More importantly, if he kills, or otherwise harms someone, without just cause, he will have committed a grave sin in the sight of Allah.
Irascible emotionalism in a person is a potential danger that can erupt out at any time, and have very serious repercussions. An emotional person may become angry if someone makes a wrong move in traffic, or if someone he does not know looks at him in such a way as to make him uncomfortable, or because of some simple misunderstanding, then act in such a way as to only bring upon himself all sorts of trouble and pain.
A clear example of the unreasonableness that emotionalism gives rise to can be seen in the brutish behaviour of some fans after a football match. They assault people they do not know, and nearly kill them with meat cleavers, knives and clubs. Their minds and consciences are blinded by the satanic weapon of emotionalism, truly a grave plague on society. But, Allah commands human beings to avoid Satan, to establish peace and security, not anger and conflict.
You who believe! Enter absolutely into peace (Islam). Do not follow in the footsteps of Satan. He is an outright enemy to you. (Surat al-Baqara: 208)
The Prophet Mohammed also preached serenity among the believers, saying "The strong is not the one who overcomes the people with his strength, but the strong is the one who controls himself while in anger."
Here, it is necessary to distinguish between sentimentality and rationality. Anger and hate felt in response to acts of cruelty and evil make a person more sensitive to and aware of justice, peace and goodness, and motivate him to strive for the eradication of that cruelty and evil, for its prevention, and for the protection of the rights of the weak and the innocent. If the sense of justice that Allah gave to humanity is not controlled by the will and wisdom, it can be diverted from its true purpose, and flare up against the fans of an opposing sports club. People who do not have a strong will and wisdom cannot restrain their emotions, and can be led from the true path into whatever direction satan may desire. In another verse, Allah warns humanity against Satan:
You who believe! Do not follow in the footsteps of satan. Anyone who follows in Satan's footsteps should know that he commands indecency and wrongdoing. Were it not for Allah's favour to you and His mercy, not one of you would ever have been purified. But Allah purifies whoever He wills. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. (Surat an-Nur:21).

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Profesor Belanda: Psikologi ala Darwin Ternyata Keliru

Ilmu psikologi yang dijelaskan berlandaskan teori evolusi Darwin ternyata keliru, kata para pakar. Metoda dan datan tidak bisa dijadikan bukti. Psikologi evolusioner ala Darwin mulai tumbang !

Hidayatullah.com–Pakar biologi asal Belanda, Johan J. Bolhuis, yang juga presiden Royal Dutch Zoological Society, baru-baru ini menulis di terbitan ilmiah pro-evolusi terkemuka, Science, 6 Juni 2008. Di jurnal itu, profesor di Institute of Biology, Leiden University, Belanda ini membedah sebuah buku penting yang baru terbit, Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology (Psikologi Evolusioner sebagai Psikologi Salah Tempat), karya Robert C. Richardson.
Buku tersebut membongkar kekeliruan penerapan teori evolusi Darwin di bidang psikologi. Pendekatan evolusi ini menarik perhatian kalangan masyarakat luas karena, sebagaimana dituturkan Bolhuis, seringkali menyentuh bahasan-bahasan seperti birahi manusia, seks dan nafsu.
Psikologi ala Darwin
Dalam ulasannya yang berjudul “Psychology: Piling On the Selection Pressure” di majalah Science itu, Johan J Bolhuis menyatakan bahwa Charles Darwin memperluas cakupan teori evolusi dalam buku The Origin of Species-nya untuk menjelaskan kemampuan berpikir pada manusia. Ini dituangkan Darwin dalam bukunya yang lain, The Descent of Man, di mana Darwin berpendapat bahwa sifat-sifat pada diri manusia seperti moralitas dan emosi muncul melalui evolusi.
Dalam perkembangan selanjutnya, para pakar di bidang psikologi yang datang kemudian lalu mengekor jejak sang guru Charles Darwin, berusaha menerapkan teori evolusi untuk menjelaskan akal pikiran manusia, atau yang dikenal dengan istilah evolutionary psychology (psikologi evolusioner, yakni psikologi yang dijelaskan menurut teori evolusi). Lebih khusus lagi, psikologi evolusioner mengemukakan bahwa akal pikiran manusia terdiri dari simpul-simpul daya pikir yang berevolusi sebagai tanggapan atas tekanan seleksi yang dihadapi nenek moyang manusia pada Zaman Batu.
Evolusi adalah ideologi
Awalnya berupaya menjelaskan asal usul keanekaragaman makhluk hidup dengan menihilkan pencipta, teori evolusi pun lalu merambah ke ranah psikologi manusia. Ini menyiratkan betapa evolusi bukanlah sekedar teori di bidang biologi semata. Lebih luas dari itu, evolusi adalah ideologi atau akidah ateis materialis, yang diterima benar secara dogmatis, meski tanpa bukti nyata, dan dijadikan penganutnya sebagai cara pandang serta pijakan dalam mengembangkan ilmu-ilmu lain, termasuk psikologi manusia.
Karena dijadikan landasan dogma tanpa bukti di bidang psikologi evolusioner, tidak heran jika terjadi kejumudan dengan menolak penjelasan selainnya. Bolhuis menegaskan permasalahan penting ini:
“The main problem with evolutionary psychology is that it usually does not consider alternative explanations but takes the assumption of adaptation through natural selection as given.”Permasalahan utama dengan psikologi evolusioner adalah biasa tidak dipertimbangkannya penjelasan-penjelasan alternatif tapi menjadikan anggapan (asumsi) adaptasi melalui seleksi alam sebagai kebenaran yang wajib diterima.
Perkataan di atas adalah bukti jelas yang menggambarkan sifat teori evolusi yang tidak mencerminkan teori ilmiah, melainkan akidah, dogma ataupun ideologi yang wajib diterima dengan menutup diri dari penjelasan lain.
Tak punya bukti
Sang pengarang buku Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology, Robert Richardson, adalah pendukung evolusi, yang percaya bahwa kemampuan psikologis manusia merupakan sifat yang terevolusi. Meskipun begitu, filsuf asal University of Cincinnati itu menyatakan bahwa penafsiran psikologi evolusioner dari sudut pandang biologi evolusi adalah salah. Richardson sampai pada kesimpulan tersebut berdasarkan kajiannya yang berpegang teguh pada ilmu pengetahuan, terutama pada metoda-metoda ilmiah yang digunakan dalam penelitian di bidang tersebut.
Menurut Bolhuis, karya Richardson ini merupakan pelengkap karya yang telah terbit sebelumnya, yang juga memberikan bantahan telak terhadap penerapan teori evolusi selama ini di bidang psikologi. Karya yang lebih dulu terbit tahun 2005 itu berjudul Adapting Minds (Akal Yang Beradaptasi), yang juga karya pendukung evolusi, David Buller, pakar filsafat asal Northern Illinois University. Berbeda dari Richardson, karya Buller lebih terperinci, menitikberatkan pada bukti-bukti dan memberikan penafsiran lain.
Para pakar psikologi evolusioner seringkali bersikukuh dengan pendapat mereka hingga timbul kesan bahwa kemampuan nalar manusia hanya dapat dipahami berdasarkan sejarah evolusi manusia. Akan tetapi dalam kajiannya, sebagaimana dituangkan di banyak tempat dalam bukunya Evolutionary Psychology as Maladaptive Psychology, Richardson berkesimpulan bahwa tidak ada bukti sejarah yang dapat digunakan untuk merekonstruksi evolusi kemampuan berpikir manusia.
Contoh nyatanya adalah kemampuan berbahasa pada manusia. Penjelasan yang cenderung digunakan dalam psikologi evolusioner adalah bahwa proses evolusi mendorong kemunculan keterampilan berbahasa tersebut untuk digunakan dalam kelompok masyarakat kompleks. Dengan kata lain, ada kebutuhan akan bahasa. Richardson berpendapat bahwa para pakar fosil mustahil akan menemukan bukti-bukti yang dapat memberikan informasi tentang tatanan sosial masyarakat nenek moyang manusia.
Rekaan belaka
Bahkan kalaupun bukti-bukti yang diperlukan dalam pengkajian kemampuan berpikir manusia berdasarkan psikologi evolusioner dapat dikumpulkan, hal ini tidak akan menghasilkan pengetahuan tentang mekanisme kemampuan berpikir manusia, ulas Bolhuis yang juga menjabat sebagai profesor tamu di Department of Zoology, University of Salzburg, Austria. Sebab, kajian tentang evolusi berkutat pada rekonstruksi sejarah sifat-sifat manusia.
Kajian tersebut tidak, dan tidak dapat, menelaah mekanisme yang terlibat pada otak manusia, yang merupakan bidang kajian ilmu saraf dan psikologi kognitif. Dengan demikian pengkajian psikologi berlandaskan teori evolusi tidak akan pernah berhasil, karena berupaya menjelaskan mekanisme-mekanisme tapi secara tidak tepat mengacu pada sejarah mekanisme-mekanisme tersebut. Ini diibaratkan sang pengarang seperti menjelaskan struktur tanaman anggrek dengan merujuk pada keindahannya.
Di akhir ulasannya mengenai buku Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology (Psikologi Evolusioner sebagai Psikologi Salah Tempat), profesor Bolhuis mengatakan bahwa hasil kajian Richardson mengungkap betapa kajian psikologi berdasarkan teori evolusi sebagian besarnya adalah rekaan semata:
In this excellent book, Richardson shows very clearly that attempts at reconstruction of our cognitive history amount to little more than "speculation disguised as results."
Dalam buku luar biasa ini, Richardson memperlihatkan dengan sangat gamblang bahwa upaya-upaya dalam penyusunan ulang sejarah kemampuan berpikir kita sedikit lebih dari “rekaan yang disamarkan sebagai hasil.” (Science 6 Juni 2008, Vol. 320. no. 5881, hal. 1293).
Atau sebagaimana diulas pula dalam editorial buku terbitan The MIT Press (http://mitpress.mit.edu/) tersebut:
It is speculation rather than sound science--and we should treat its claims with skepticism. ([Psikologi evolusioner] itu lebih merupakan rekaan daripada ilmu pengetahuan yang mapan – dan kita sepatutnya memperlakukan pernyataan-pernyataannya dengan keraguan).
Mudah-mudahan psikologi evolusioner yang terbukti keliru ini, namun telah lama diajarkan di dunia akademis, tak terkecuali di lembaga pendidikan tinggi terkemuka di Indonesia, semakin mendapatkan pencerahan alternatif. Semoga. [as/science/MITpress/http://hidayatullah.com/

Our forests are crucial carbon stores

The forest debate in Australia remains dominated by conflict between those who see the forest as a source of raw material (woodchips) and those who value the forest left intact for nature conservation. We need to update the forest debate to reflect current concerns and the growing imperative that we solve the global warming problem. This means that forest policy, nationally as well as internationally, must begin to reflect the role of forests as part of a coordinated greenhouse-gas mitigation strategy.
In addition to reducing our use of fossil fuel, the other major mitigation strategy is to increase the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by natural processes through protecting and restoring the world’s natural forests.
Natural forests are an important part of the global carbon cycle. They are buffers that soak up excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and store it in the biomass of trees and in the soil. Forests are an essential natural mechanism for stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide in the short and long term.
One hectare of mature, tall, wet forest can store the equivalent of 5,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is about the same as the annual carbon dioxide emissions from 1,300 cars. Even less productive dry forests and woodlands store significant amounts of carbon.
Most of the carbon in a natural forest is stored in the woody biomass of big old trees, dead wood on the forest floor, and in the soil. It is easy to forget about the carbon below ground: in the tree roots and associated fungi, other micro-organisms and decomposed plant material. These represent significant stocks of carbon that are continually replenished through natural ecosystem processes.
Forests contain about three to four times more carbon than is now in the atmosphere. About half the world’s forests have been cleared for agriculture and human settlement. Much of what is left is commercially logged for timber products; especially woodchip for pulpbased products.
Forests that are commercially logged store about 30 per cent to 40 per cent less carbon than unlogged forests. If we were to halt further deforestation and allow the world’s forests that have been logged to naturally regrow, the amount of carbon taken up and stored in these ecosystems would make a significant contribution to solving the global warming problem. Plantation timber can be grown on land that has already been cleared and used to meet the demand for pulp and related wood-fibre products.
If global warming really is the mother of all environmental problems, then perhaps the time has come to bring to an end the clearing and logging of natural forests. This will make a significant and cost-effective contribution to solving the global warming problem. We must not forget that the laws of science apply universally and do not recognise political boundaries. Whether a natural forest is inn Tasmania, Victoria or Papua, it performs the same kind of role in the global carbon cycle and in helping to regulate atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide.
All the signs are that sooner or later the carbon that is stored in natural forests will be assigned an economic value and become part of the global carbon market. When this happens, companies will be allowed to offset some of their carbon emissions by investing in forest protection. Once the carbon in forest ecosystems has a market value, companies that are fossil-fuel hungry (such as steel and aluminium producers) will seek to take advantage of offset opportunities in natural forests to give themselves more time to maintain production levels while making the transition to greenhouse-friendly energy sources.
For this reason, I predict that as the impact of global warming increases in the coming years, the market values of carbon in natural forests will dramatically increase. It will be ironic if Australia’s natural forests are taken out of wood production not by conservationists but by international corporations.
Of course, before this can happen in a substantial and enduring way, the international rules have to change. But this process has already started, at least in terms of recognising the need to prevent deforestation in developing countries, and voluntary investments in forest conservation are already occurring.

Brendan Mackey is a professor of Environmental Science at the Australian National University and a member of the WildCountry Science Council.

For more information, please contact:
National Campaign Administrator
The Wilderness Society Inc
GPO Box 716, Hobart TAS 7001, AustraliaPhone: (03) 6270 1701 Fax: (03) 6231 6533 Email: info@wilderness.org.auMembership enquiries, donations: Freecall 1800 030 641 Email: members@wilderness.org.auABN: 62 007 508 349.

Source : http://www.wilderness.org.au/articles/crucial-carbon-stores

The task of avoiding dangerous climate change

Climate change is already having a significant impact on Australia’s natural ecosystems, farming, water supplies, coastal planning and myriad other activities. This, and the climate change already locked in to the climate system, demand that we think and plan for how we can adapt. However, adaptation will be costly, increasingly difficult the more we allow climate change to increase in severity and potentially too late for many of our native plants and animals.
We must do all we can to limit climate change now. This means large and rapid reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases from all sources.

Keeping as far below 2°C as possible

To give the planet its best chance of long term survival the current scientific thinking supports keeping global temperature increases to less than 2°C, above which the impacts will be extremely damaging.
To stay under this 2°C ‘target’ international environment groups are calling for global emissions to peak by 2015 and for industrialized countries to reduce emissions by at least 30% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 (compared to 1990 levels). This is a phenomenally challenging target.
This ‘peak and decline’ approach comes from the panel of scientists set up to advise the United Nations on Climate Change. Known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), these scientists (numbering over 400), ran a number of global emissions scenarios and their impacts in their fourth assessment report on climate change.

The longer that global emissions continue to grow, the more warming is injected into the system, the steeper (or more abruptly) declines in emissions are needed, and the risk of missing the 2°C target grows.Australia’s 2008-2012 Kyoto target allows it to increase its emissions from 1990 levels by 8%. Australia is currently struggling to achieve this target and yet it is clear that the Kyoto targets (agreed to in 1998) are far from adequate to address the current climate situation. Developed countries such as Australia and the United States must therefore follow the lead of countries in the European Union in committing to serious rates of emissions reductions, of the order of tens of percent per decade.
Admittedly this is a tall order, but it is achievable with the necessary will to act. It will involve significant changes in how we do things, in efficiency standards and lifestyles, in completely shifting our development expectations away from carbon based fuels and into the rapid growth of new technologies and renewable energy systems, and in protecting our natural carbon stores such as forests and bushlands. If we get this right, we can transform Australia into a place that wastes less resources, is more self-sufficient, is cleaner and less polluted, where we have built more sustainable urban villages with healthier lifestyles and where our natural environment is properly protected.
The Wilderness Society is an active member of Climate Action Network Australia. Read the CANA report, Turning Down the Heat for a comprehensive look at what Australia can do to address climate change.

There are three things you can do to help:
Actively support campaigns to save our wild places. This means ending land clearing and most native forest logging – a guaranteed, immediate and cost-effective way to stop carbon pollution – and creating more protected areas to give habitats and wildlife a better chance to cope with climate change.
Help The Wilderness Society to make sure Australia doesn’t choose a nuclear future. Nuclear is the wrong answer to climate change.
Help reduce greenhouse emissions from energy use.

Six simple things you can do at home to reduce your energy consumption and help reduce climate change:
1. Save energy at home: use appliances with 5-star energy ratings and turn them off at the wall; change over to compact fluoro light globes and turn lights off when you don’t need them; install solar water heating; and choose accredited Green Power electricity suppliers!
2. Drive less: take a bus, train, walk or ride a bike – every 5 kilometres driven creates 1.5kg of carbon dioxide.
3. Reduce, reuse, recycle: cutting down on packaging and recycling your waste can save thousands of kilograms of greenhouse pollution for each household.
4. Buy local: transporting products creates huge amounts of greenhouse pollution – buy local and cut down on carbon emissions!
5. Turn down the air conditioning: Australians spend tonnes of greenhouse gases to heat and cool our homes. By building and insulating more efficiently, and learning to live with our natural environment we can make a huge contribution to reducing global warming.
6. Plant some trees: each tree can absorb a tonne of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Fill your garden with water-wise natives and help make a difference.

For more information, please contact:
National Campaign Administrator
The Wilderness Society Inc
GPO Box 716, Hobart TAS 7001, AustraliaPhone: (03) 6270 1701 Fax: (03) 6231 6533 Email: info@wilderness.org.auMembership enquiries, donations: Freecall 1800 030 641 Email: members@wilderness.org.auABN: 62 007 508 349.

Source :http://www.wilderness.org.au/articles/avoid-dangerous-climate-change

RESTRICTIONS ON TURTLE HUNTING IN THE OPEN SEASON

By Tanya Clovis

Following reports of turtle hunting at Kilygwyn in last week’s article, Environment TOBAGO and Save Our Sea Turtles (SOS) Tobago would like to remind the general public that while we are now in the ‘open’ hunting season, there are still restrictions on turtle hunting that apply.
The Conservation of Wildlife Act, Ch. 67:01 addresses the protection of all wildlife through providing lists of pest and game species that can be hunted, sea turtles appear on neither list and are therefore, by omission, a protected species. This is the Act under which the ‘open’ and ‘closed’ hunting seasons are enforced by wardens and honorary game wardens under the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (DNRE) of the THA, which used to be known as the Forestry Department.
However, the Fisheries Ordinance, Ch. 25. No. 9. is much more specific in how it treats with turtle protection both at sea and on land. This Ordinance is actually called “The Protection of Turtle and Turtle Eggs Regulations, 1975” and it is here that we find, in addition to the open and closed season restriction, a detailed, year round prohibition on taking possession of a female turtle and on taking, removing or selling turtle eggs.
In accordance with these regulations, no person shall, at any time, “kill, harpoon, catch or otherwise take possession of any female turtle which is in the sea within any reef or within one thousand yards of the highwater mark of the foreshore where there is no reef.” It is under this law, that the juvenile green turtle captured in a turtle net at Kilygwyn on Sunday 23rd November, should have been protected.
Most turtles caught in the open season are seized in nearshore waters by spear gun or turtle net. There is, for example, the long standing and lucrative tradition of laying turtle nets at Lambeau, Petit Trou, Canoe Bay and Kilygwyn where sea grass beds surrounded by reef provide an ideal feeding ground for young hawksbill and green turtles. There have in fact been reports of as many as twenty turtles being captured in one net at one time in this area with little or no official monitoring by the authorities.
The existing laws make turtle hunting particularly complex to address in the open season in part, because of the whole male/female issue. The only visible way to distinguish between a mature male and female turtle is by tail length, it is almost impossible to make this distinction in young turtles. Some will also argue that it is difficult to prove exactly how far a net is from the shore. While this may be true, it is also true that most turtle nets, like those in the Kilygwyn area, are set within or near areas of reef so the issue of distance from the highwater mark is therefore irrelevant in most cases.
While no comprehensive studies have been done to determine the sustainability of our current levels of sea turtle consumption, almost everyone agrees that the turtles are becoming less and smaller. All turtle species that inhabit in our waters are endangered worldwide and although Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory to many international and regional conventions recognizing the need to protect endangered species, our actual laws remain obviously inadequate with regards to marine turtles.
However, we each have the right and perhaps, in this case, even the responsibility to make an informed and compassionate dietary choice. Marine turtles have played a critical role in the ocean’s food chain for millions of years; their decline disrupts the natural balance of the sea upon which we depend for food and recreation. The possibility that Tobago’s turtles may be hunted to extinction in our lifetime is very real and could have more serious consequences than we will ever fully understand.

Source : http://www.sos-tobago.org/articles/dec03.html

Killing Turtles Affects Fishing and Tourism

Every year, many turtles are killed in Tobago to satisfy our seemingly endless appetite for ‘wildmeat’ and this year seems to be no different. In one week alone, three pregnant, female Leatherback turtles were slaughtered at Speyside, Bacolet and Turtle Beach, their carcasses left to rot in the sun. In the case of the Bacolet turtle, one of the biggest recorded in recent times, only her flippers were removed and she was left gasping for breath on her back until she bled to death. The Turtle Beach turtle was killed only 300 metres from the Rex Turtle Beach Hotel revealing the other side of our supposedly ‘eco-friendly’ island to a number of horrified Virgin Airlines visitors. Will this senseless killing stop before it is too late?
Sea turtles have been a traditional food source in the Caribbean since Amerindian times. However, as the number of people dining on turtle increased, the number of turtles decreased. An increase in human activities, both on and around the sea, has also contributed to the decline; pollution, coastal development and the commercial fishing industry have all, inadvertently, taken their toll on the fragile sea turtle population. Most sea turtles take up to 25 years to reach sexual maturity and they are now dying faster than they can reproduce. Leatherbacks, Hawksbills and Green turtles are all found in Tobago and are all facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future. Unless our attitudes and habits change drastically, we are going to lose our turtles forever.
Take for example the Leatherback, the largest and most migratory of our sea turtles. Leatherbacks travel extensively throughout the Atlantic coming into Caribbean waters between March and July to breed. Leatherbacks are now critically endangered due mainly to poaching (illegal hunting) and accidental entanglement in commercial deep sea fishing equipment such as longlines; recent studies show that they could be completely extinct within the next thirty years. Tobago is one of the only Caribbean islands that Leatherbacks nest on and given their increasingly endangered status, we bear a huge responsibility to the entire Atlantic Leatherback population to provide safe breeding grounds so that this species may have a chance to replenish itself.
Sea turtles have played a critical role in the ocean’s food chain for millions of years, their decline and eventual extinction has serious consequences for the sea upon which we depend for recreation and food. Leatherbacks feed almost exclusively on jellyfish, eating up to twice their body weight each day in the soft bodied and often poisonous jellies. Jellyfish themselves have been known to feed on the eggs and larvae of spawning fish as well as on the plankton that would otherwise nourish the surviving baby fish. Swarming jellyfish are now being blamed for destroying fish farms throughout the North Atlantic and preventing fisheries recovery in areas that have suffered from overfishing. Right here in Tobago, the jellyfish swarms this year were responsible for clogging seines and they held more poisonous Man’o’War jellyfish than any in recent memory. Without Leatherbacks, the jellyfish population thrives, not only endangering local and visiting bathers, but also our invaluable fisheries.
Our insatiable desire for ‘wildmeat’ in every harvest pot, is destroying what is left of our wildlife and may well eventually destroy the very fishing and tourism industries that we depend on for survival. Sea turtles are just one more critical part of the web of plants and animals that makes Tobago beautiful and unique. Without this natural abundance and variety we would be living on nothing more than a barren rock in an empty sea with only ourselves for company… with only ourselves to blame.

Source :http://www.sos-tobago.org/articles/july03.html