10% of turtles that come to lay eggs in Mayotte are poached for their meat sold on the island for up to 60 euros per kilo

“Here’s a new female who left her life on this beach. It’s quite fresh because we have blood… and it disappears quite quickly, explains marine biologist Jeanne Wagner to the magazine ‘L’été de 20h30 le dimanche’ (replay). They didn’t bother to bury it, just put a little sand on it. It’s sad. It could be that the turtle was laying eggs because there is a cavity. All her eggs should have given birth to little turtles…”

“Currently, we have at least 10% of the females who come to lay eggs in Mayotte who are poached, 10% every year, specifies the director of the Oulanga Na Nyamba association, created in 1998 by a group of Mahorais passionate about environment, which is dedicated in particular to the protection of sea turtles and their habitat. Any human being, who understands a little, sees where it can lead: extinction in a few years, in any case the disappearance in Mayotte. And to think that she is older than us…”

Turtle poaching is not a tradition

Turtle meat is sold illegally on the island and its price can go up to sixty euros per kilo. “It’s clearly to have money easily and quickly, says the resident scientist lives in Mayotte, an archipelago located between Madagascar and the coast of Mozambique. It is a purely short-term and illegal economic vision. There’s a whole network formed around it that looks like a drug ring. They sell the meat to buy food but it can also be nice clothes.”

“There are people who are not in need at all and who poach. We see the poachers who arrive in court. There are those who have nothing, no other resources, but there are also people who work here and there. It’s the little extra that really enriches them. When you ask the Mahorais if poaching is a tradition, they answer: ‘No, it’s something important, we don’t hasn’t eaten turtle before. It didn’t exist before.'”, says Jeanne Wagner.

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