KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Matu­ra’s leatherback tur­tle nest­ing sea­son is be­ing threat­ened by an ac­cu­mu­la­tion of sar­gas­sum sea­weed.

At the break of dawn yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, 28 peo­ple from the vil­lage lo­cat­ed in east Trinidad start­ed a dri­ve to rec­ti­fy the prob­lem when they as­sist­ed Na­ture Seek­ers with the re­moval of the sea­weed from the beach.

Na­ture Seek­ers man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Su­san Lack­han-Bap­tiste said while the coun­try is at the height of its tur­tle-nest­ing sea­son, few­er than usu­al num­bers of the ma­jes­tic sea crea­tures were cur­rent­ly mak­ing it to shore in Matu­ra due to the sar­gas­sum prob­lem.

“This year seems to be a very good year for nest­ing, as we had our first record­ing be­fore Car­ni­val,” said Lack­han-Bap­tiste.

“About three weeks ago, the sar­gas­sum sea­weed start­ed com­ing in­to the beach. This is ter­ri­ble for the leatherback tur­tles, ter­ri­ble for tourism.”

Dubbed the “float­ing rain­for­est,” sar­gas­sum sea­weed is a genus of macroal­gae.

The nick­name comes from the lo­ca­tion from where sar­gas­sum em­anates, in the mid­dle of the North At­lantic Sub­trop­i­cal Gyre: the Sar­gas­so Sea, where pre­dom­i­nant ocean cur­rents cre­ate a vor­tex that amass­es huge quan­ti­ties of the sea­weed.

Ac­cord­ing to re­search, the unique habi­tat is es­sen­tial for a di­verse ar­ray of fau­na; for in­stance, open ocean sar­gas­sum mats pro­vide im­por­tant nurs­eries for sea tur­tles such as log­ger­heads.

But, over the past half-decade, sar­gas­sum has been in­creas­ing in un­prece­dent­ed quan­ti­ties and is af­fect­ing ar­eas far from the Sar­gas­so Sea.

Mas­sive amounts have ap­peared on coasts from Flori­da through the Caribbean to South Amer­i­ca, even reach­ing west­ern Africa.

Lakhan-Bap­tiste said the ac­cu­mu­la­tion of sar­gas­sum sea­weed on beach­es like Matu­ra, pose a sig­nif­i­cant threat to tur­tle nest­ing, hin­der­ing nest­ing ac­tiv­i­ties and po­ten­tial­ly im­pact­ing hatch­ling sur­vival. 

“Large amount acts like a buffer, a bar­ri­er on the beach­es, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for the leatherback tur­tles to find suit­able nest­ing sites and dig nests,” she said.

“Sar­gas­sum ac­cu­mu­la­tion can al­so pre­vent hatch­lings from reach­ing the sea suc­cess­ful­ly.”

Large amounts of sar­gas­sum can cre­ate a phys­i­cal bar­ri­er on beach­es, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for tur­tles to find suit­able nest­ing sites and dig nests. The sea­weed can al­so al­ter the tem­per­a­ture of the sand, po­ten­tial­ly im­pact­ing the sex ra­tio of hatch­lings, as sea tur­tle sex de­ter­mi­na­tion is tem­per­a­ture de­pen­dent. 

“The re­moval of the sar­gas­sum sea­weed is of very high im­por­tance,” she said.

“We have en­gaged the com­mu­ni­ty to ex­pe­ri­ence our con­ser­va­tion ef­forts. Vil­lagers will as­sist with the re­moval of the sar­gas­sum sea­weed in var­i­ous parts of the beach. The four-year ini­tia­tive is part of the Nec­tar Project fund­ed by The Green Fund to en­sure the suc­cess­ful nest­ing of the leatherback tur­tles.

The na­ture Seek­ers leader al­so put out an in­vi­ta­tion for any groups/in­di­vid­u­als in­ter­est­ed in as­sist­ing.”

She added, “Clean-up ef­forts will take place five days a week and on Sat­ur­days with the ex­cep­tion of Sun­days and pub­lic hol­i­days.

“If you are in­ter­est­ed, please let us know so that the nec­es­sary per­mit can be ac­quired. Once you are will­ing, we will be hap­py to have you.”

The leatherback tur­tle-nest­ing sea­son in Trinidad and To­ba­go typ­i­cal­ly runs from March 1st to Au­gust 31st, with the main nest­ing beach­es be­ing Matu­ra, Grande Riv­iere, and Fish­ing Pond.