Turtles lured to disco death in Greece
LAGANAS, Greece (Reuters)—Disco lights are luring baby turtles to their deaths on the fringes of a Greek marine park in the Mediterranean Sea.
Environmentalists say that rare loggerhead turtles scramble out at night from eggs in the sand on beaches in the west Greek island of Zakynthos and instinctively head for the brightest horizon—normally the white foam of waves under the stars.
But neon lights from discos and cafes along the back of the beach at Laganas, built for tourists who also go for boat trips in the bay to try to spot turtles, are often fatally brighter.
“Some turtles crawl up the beach the wrong way and die of dehydration or get eaten by seabirds or dogs,” said Anders Kofoed, a Danish volunteer working for the Greek conservation group Archelon. “The park isn’t working properly.”
About 2,500 delegates will attend the World Parks Congress in the South African port of Durban from September 8 to 17 to review the state of the world’s conservation areas which now cover about 12 percent of the planet’s land surface.
The congress says its main theme will be “Benefits beyond Boundaries”—including how best to promote “alliances between protected areas and other sectors, such as tourism, forestry, water supply and perhaps mining.”
Spin-offs of tourism, including jobs in remote areas, are often positive. But others—like roads through African jungles or disco lights in Greece—can be a threat to the environment underpinning the very rationale for a park.
More and more tourists want to see creatures from quetzal birds in Central America to koalas nibbling eucalyptus leaves in Australia. But the creatures probably don’t want to see the humans.
Better than mining
“Tourism is better than mining in the Arctic or logging in the southern hemisphere,” said Samantha Smith, director of the Arctic Program at the WWF environmental group.
“The problem is that you rarely get just tourists. When you build roads into the rain forest for tourists, for instance, you also facilitate both legal and illegal logging.”
In Mozambique, the coastal resort of Ponta do Ouro just across the South African border is showing strains from ecotourists since the end of Mozambique’s civil war in 1992.
Hundreds of divers come every weekend to explore its stunning coral reefs, helped by a paved road to the South African side of the border. But most of the jobs created by the tourists are low paid and menial.
“Development here has been going very fast,” said the South African manager of one bed and breakfast near the beach.
Stricter guidelines and rules for parks are part of the answer.
WWF’s Smith said the Denali National Park in Alaska, home to grizzly bears, wolves and moose, was a good example of rules to minimise disturbances. The park includes North America’s highest mountain, Mount McKinley, at 20,320 feet (6,194 meters).
The park, mainly a wilderness most of which is accessible only on foot, has limits for numbers of campers according to zones. And access for cars, buses and snowmobiles is restricted with roads only on the outskirts.
“These zones are a really good solution,” Smith said.
In the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard off northern Norway, ecotourism guides get training in how to “Leave No Trace,” including picking up cigarette butts.
Whale watching
In recent years, whale watching has exploded into a billion dollar business worldwide, from New Zealand to Norway, often with little regulation.
Like loggerhead turtles in Greece, whales are often harassed by boats cramming close to let tourists get the best photographs. Experts say that trips with a guide who knows about the animals cost more but are usually worth the extra cash.
“You have to be careful, you must approach whales not too fast from the side,” says Erwin Fulterer, managing director of Whale Safari in Andenes, northern Norway. He expects a record 16,000 visitors this season to watch sperm whales.
The British-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society urges respect for the mammals in its guidelines for watchers.
“Imagine how you would feel if a coach-load of tourists descended on your living room and expected to photograph your family having Sunday lunch,” it says.
Copyright 2003 Reuters.
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Posted by: Paul on September 05, 2003 at 14:29:42