Thank you very much for your very kind invitation to this very important meeting. Although I know many people here, to those that don't know me. I am Dr. Robert Sutcliffe, a retired dental surgeon, and '" have had the pleasure to monitor the turtles at the Devi River mouth, every year for the last ten years.
I met Bevas on the beach when he was on his famous walk of the Orissa Coast and from then on all my endeavors have been to support him and the Wild Life Trust of India. As an outsider I have a slightly different view, so I hope that not too much exception will be taken to my suggestions which I hope will form the basis of discussion.
I feel that the key word to emphasize is 'cooperation'.
If the trawler owners can see that their long term profits will be greater if TEDS are used, then I think the battle will be won.
Over the years, as the death toll of the turtles has risen so has the concern of environmentalists not only here but in India and throughout the world. This has led to increasing harassment of the trawlers and consequent loss of profits. Unless the deaths stop, the harassment will increase exponentially, not to mention how the dead turtles seriously damage India's image in the world. If deaths continue, pressure will mount to close export markets and this would impinge on the whole prawn industry in all of India. Trawlers off the coast of Orissa would be largely responsible for losing profitable export markets that benefjt all of India.
It is very difficult for Indians here to appreciate the very high profile that turtles have achieved in the rest of the world and the billions of dollars that turtles earn worldwide. India is one of the only tropical countries not to exploit the tourist potential.
Believe it or not, there are wealthy people willing to spend their money to come and visit Orissa to see turtles massing in great numbers. People from around the world are willing to spend vacation time visiting remote beaches and spending time on board trawlers to tag and record data on captured turtles and see that they are returned live to the sea. Opportunity for this type of 'eco-friendly tourism' exists elsewhere but not yet in Orissa. It only needs organizing and publicity.
If the turtle deaths stop then I feel that harassment of trawlers will get less and profits will rise.
At present, the long term outlook for profits is not good because of over fishing which depletes the numbers of shrimp. Experience in India shows that trawlers have created 'deserts under the sea' in neighboring States. Profits will be further affected if international attention is focused on Orissa.
A positive attitude should be taken:
Instead of trying to force the trawlers to use TEDS, I suggest the formation a very exclusive club: 'THE TED TRAWLERS OF ORISSA.' .
My vision of cooperation is seeing trawlers flying a flag that means 'turtle friendly'. And when we see a a big trawler fishing without a TED it will be trawling and pulling his net every hour, so that turtles are not harmed, catching thousands of turtles that will be tagged and position-monitored by research workers and rich eco-tourists paying big bucks for the privilege of helping.
The trawler would have his biggest catch ever as the density of prawns and turtles is directly proportional to the distance to the shore, and the Turtle Freaks might eventually learn enough to forecast the exact time and place of a mass nesting.