Impacts on marine turtles - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 81

3,000

2,500

2 00

2,000

2 2 000

1,500

1 00

1,000

1 000

500

0

1925 1927 1929 1931 1933 1935 1937 1939 1941 1943 1945 1947 1949
Year

Figure 6.5 Numbers of green turtles harvested in the Capricorn-Bunker Group, 1925-
1949. Source: Compiled from data provided in Annual Reports, QDHM , QPP , 1926-1950

Agent-General, reported: the twelve-ounce tins were too small, the consistency
of the soup too thin, the content of green meat too low and the packaging
too drab, he argued, for the London market. Third, the factory at North West
Island was described as 'a somewhat ramshackle affair', and legal and financial
difficulties hindered the operation of the Barrier Reef Trading Company. Fourth,
as a report by F. W. Moorhouse (1935, p20) of the Great Barrier Reef Committee
revealed, turtles had become scarce in the waters around Heron Island as a result
of unsustainable fishing practices, including the capture of female turtles before
they had laid their eggs. Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, as Limpus et al.
(2003) have shown, large natural variations occur in the proportions of green
turtle populations nesting in any one year. Consequently, the 1929-1930 turtle-
canning operation was not completed. By 1932, the factories on both cays had
closed and, during 1934 and 1935, the Heron Island factory was converted into
a tourist resort.
On 15 December 1932, in response to calls for the protection of turtles at
Heron Island, the Queensland Government prohibited turtle fishing during the
months of October and November in waters to the south of latitude 17°S (to
the north of that latitude, turtles were found to breed as late as May, so were not
deemed to require legal protection). However, turtle fishing continued elsewhere
and at other times of the year (Roughley, 1936, p255). Commercial turtle fishing
continued in the vicinity of Gladstone to supply turtle soup and frozen turtle
meat to the Brisbane and overseas markets. Green turtles were also captured
at North West Island and transported alive via the Fitzroy River to the Lakes
Creek Meatworks, in Rockhampton, to supply green turtle meat to the Central
Queensland Meat Export Company Limited; that turtle-fishing operation is
shown i n Figure 6.6 (Dick, 1932). The market for turtle soup and frozen and sun-
dried turtle meat was supplied by two companies: Great Barrier Reef Fisheries Ltd
(1929) and Queensland Marine Industries Ltd (1932).