nest­ing sea­son in Trinidad and To­ba­go will be­gin on 1st March 2025 and run through 31st Au­gust 2025. The Min­istry re­minds the pub­lic three beach­es—Fish­ing Pond, Matu­ra, and Grande Riv­ière—serve as the pri­ma­ry nest­ing sites for the is­land's sea tur­tles, and these ar­eas are des­ig­nat­ed as Pro­hib­it­ed Zones.

Un­der the For­est Act, which gov­erns ac­cess to these ar­eas, per­mis­sion is re­quired for en­try for the pur­pose of tur­tle view­ing. The Min­istry has made it clear per­mits can be ob­tained from Forestry Di­vi­sion and Dis­trict Rev­enue of­fices start­ing on 28th Feb­ru­ary 2025. “We urge the pub­lic to act re­spon­si­bly and avoid any ac­tions that could dis­rupt the nest­ing process, harm the tur­tles, or lead to nest aban­don­ment,” the Min­istry said via re­lease.

The Min­istry al­so pro­vid­ed spe­cif­ic guide­lines for the pub­lic to fol­low dur­ing the nest­ing sea­son to pro­tect both tur­tles and their en­vi­ron­ment. These in­clude:

-Avoid sit­ting on tur­tles, as this can cause fa­tal or­gan dam­age.

-Keep beach­es free from ma­rine de­bris, such as plas­tic and fish­ing gear, which can en­tan­gle the tur­tles.

-Re­frain from us­ing bright lights, like flam­beaus or flash­lights, which can dis­ori­ent hatch­lings.

-Re­spect the nest­ing ar­eas by not dri­ving, bik­ing, dig­ging, or re­mov­ing sand from the beach.

-Re­port any harm to tur­tles, eggs, or hatch­lings im­me­di­ate­ly to the Forestry Di­vi­sion, the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA), or the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

MALF high­light­ed the five species of sea tur­tles vis­it­ing the shores of Trinidad and To­ba­go—Leatherback, Green Tur­tle, Log­ger­head, Olive Ri­d­ley, and Hawks­bill—are clas­si­fied as En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Species (ESS) and are legal­ly pro­tect­ed un­der the Con­ser­va­tion of Wildlife Act. “Vi­o­lat­ing these pro­tec­tions can re­sult in se­vere penal­ties, in­clud­ing a TT$100,000 fine or up to two years in prison,” the Min­istry re­mind­ed the pub­lic.

For those in­ter­est­ed in tur­tle-view­ing tours, per­mits can be ob­tained from the fol­low­ing of­fices dur­ing reg­u­lar busi­ness hours:

Forestry Di­vi­sion, Long Cir­cu­lar Road, St. James (Phone: 225-3861)

Forestry Di­vi­sion, Pleas­antville, San Fer­nan­do (Phone: 225-3777 / 3774 / 3772)

Forestry Di­vi­sion, Damarie Hill, San­gre Grande (Phone: 225-3728)

Dis­trict Rev­enue Of­fice, Ram­saran Street, Ch­agua­nas (Phone: 671-4773)

Dis­trict Rev­enue Of­fice, Tu­na­puna (Phone: 662-2797)

Forestry Of­fice, Rio Claro (Phone: 868-225-3743)

The Min­istry en­cour­ages vis­i­tors to fol­low the guide­lines set by au­tho­rised tour guides and co­op­er­ate ful­ly with law en­force­ment of­fi­cers to en­sure a safe and re­spect­ful ex­pe­ri­ence for all. “We thank the pub­lic for their co­op­er­a­tion in pro­tect­ing our ma­rine bio­di­ver­si­ty and sup­port­ing the con­ser­va­tion of sea tur­tles dur­ing this im­por­tant nest­ing sea­son,” the Min­istry said.

For me­dia in­quiries, con­tact the Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Unit at 220-MALF (6253) ext. 4066 / 4202 or via email at comms.malf@gov.tt.