30 Sep Protecting Sea Turtles
By Janine Sullivan
There are seven types of sea turtles in our oceans. They are the Kemps Ridley, Olive Ridley, Leatherback, Hawksbill, Green, Loggerhead and Flatback. All of these sea turtles can be found in Panama, save one, the
A sea turtle makes her way to nest on her birth beach.
Flatback, which is only found in Australia and New Guinea. This makes Panama an extremely important place for sea turtle conservation. Unfortunately for the turtles, Panama has yet to step forward with any major conservation commitments toward sea turtles. There are rules in place for protection of the turtles and their eggs, but
enforcement of these laws has been almost non-existent, especially outside populated areas where turtle eggs are taken for sale on the black market. The market for the eggs occurs because people believe they are an aphrodisiac. Turtle eggs are often transported all over the world for resale.
La Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente de Panamá (ANAM), known by the name MiAmbiente, is Panama’s environmental protection agency. Their mission is to “conserve, protect, restore and improve the environment and the base of natural resources”, while “ensuring the compliance and application of laws, regulations and national policies on the environment”. It sounds wonderful, but what MiAmbiente doesn’t have is the teeth to enforce these laws. The agency has no officers of the law assigned to them, so they must count on local police for enforcement. 
Their lack of ability to independently enforce environmental laws creates two separate issues. The first is the obvious inability to prevent a criminal act, even if they are present when it occurs. The second is their dependency on local law enforcement, which can be subject to bias due to friendships in the area and also can be impacted by bribes within the community. Any action to enforce must be cleared and scheduled with the local officers, which may defeat any surprise tactics when trying to catch the local poachers or their black-market contacts.
There was a very recent success in Panama City when the National Police worked with MiAmbiente as they seized 
4,500 sea turtle eggs in Panama City. This is definitely a step in the right direction, but this type of action is few and far between and the sea turtle eggs continue to be stripped from Panama’s beaches. The true impact won’t be felt for another 15 to 30 years as sexual maturity would have been reached by the batches of poached eggs.
If the beach near you is experiencing nest robbing, please inform the local MiAmbiente office of your findings. If the thefts are a regular occurrence, you may wish to consider moving eggs from an undisturbed nest to a location just down the beach where the nesting turtle’s flipper marks aren’t giving away the 
location of the eggs. Clutches of eggs that have been moved have a higher incidence of unhatched eggs, so only move a nest that is in danger of being robbed or washed out by a river and only early in the morning of the day they were laid. When moving a nest, try to simulate the original nest in depth and shape, with the bottom of the nest being bulb-shaped.
Panama is important for sea turtle conservation as six of the seven species can be found here. Human interference is the largest factor for the dropping population numbers. Let’s give them our best efforts to reverse the trend here and now.
Contact:
Ministerio de Ambiente – Regional Panamá Oeste +507 254-2848
At Coronado Concierge Panama we strive to provide useful and accurate information for people living in, visiting or planning to visit Panamá. We do this within our website, newsletters and weekly blog. With our weekly blog, we try our best to make it fun and informative. Occasionally, we have guest bloggers sharing their experiences in a wide range of subjects. We are especially proud of our friends that take it upon themselves to bring information to light on subjects about endangered wildlife and marine life. Thank you Janine Sullivan for your devotion and contribution to the community.