Impacts on marine turtles - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 92

disproportional effect on turtle populations. James (1962, p15) claimed that
Torres Strait was once 'crowded with outriggers scouring the warm waters for
turtles, but those days are gone'; yet the same author claimed:
For hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, the [Torres Strait] islanders have
hunted and killed turtles selectively, knowing that if they destroyed too
many their food supply would diminish. Balanced killing indeed extended to
all marine life in the [Torres] Strait.
In contrast to the actions of Indigenous turtle hunters, James (1962, p15)
suggested that no concern for sustainability was shown by European settlers, 'who
embarked on a systematic slaughter of the turtles [that] has continued practically
to this day'. He acknowledged that the introduction of legislation by the
Queensland Government was necessary in order to prevent the extermination of
turtles in Queensland waters. However, that legislation was not always enforced;
James (1962, p17) stated that 'a white fisherman boasted to me recently that he
killed [turtles] whenever he saw them'.
Summary
This chapter has presented evidence of a range of human impacts on marine turtles
in the Great Barrier Reef and its adjacent waters: the operation of the tortoise-
shell industry and the commercial turtle fisheries; the recreational activity of
turtle-riding at resort islands; turtle farming in Torres Strait; and Indigenous
hunting of turtles. Those activities have had some severe impacts on turtles,
especially for particular species, at particular times and in particular places. The
hawksbill turtle, which was exploited heavily for tortoise-shell, is now listed as
critically endangered by the IUCN. Green turtles were significantly depleted by
the commercial fisheries - which impacted particularly on nesting adult females
in the Capricorn-Bunker group, at a critical life stage - precipitating a collapse
of the southern Great Barrier Reef green turtle fishery by 1932. Despite concerns
about the lack of sustainability of commercial green turtle harvesting, the fishery
continued in the southern Great Barrier Reef until 1950.
All of the historical impacts described in this chapter represent stresses that
have combined to make marine turtle populations more susceptible to other
anthropogenic influences, including boat strikes, by-catch in fishing nets and
shark nets, marine pollution, Indigenous hunting and the disorientation of
hatchlings by artificial lighting. Although the commercial exploitation of
marine turtles - along with most of the other activities described in this chapter
- has now ceased, the animals continue to require long-term scientific research
and monitoring and effective management to reverse the declines in their
populations. Moreover, the historical human impacts on turtles have increased
the susceptibility of these animals to other (including natural) environmental
changes, such as the degradation of important nesting habitat at Raine Island