Foundation Preservation Klein Bonaire ,
in conjunction with Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire, has been
successful in it first year of a 3- year research project headed
by marine biologist, Dr. Robert van Dam.
This project is being conducted on and
around Klein Bonaire. Along with turtle nesting surveys and turtle
tagging for research purposes, we have fitted two Hawksbill turtles
with satellite transmitters and are now tracking their movements.
Robert is continuing to monitor the
status of Klein Bonaire as an undeveloped and protected island
and we are proud to say it is still the same Klein Bonaire that
we all know and love.
Thank you for your interest and concern
for helping preserve this unique island!
Dr. Robert van Dam's interview
with the Bonaire Reporter.
Dr. Robert van Dam is the new Project
Director of the Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire (STCB, otherwise
known as the Turtle Club). He's been on the island for over a
year now and has made great strides in protecting Klein Bonaire
and its turtles.
“I’ve been involved with turtles
in a serious way since 1992, but in a non-serious way ever since
1985. Why turtles? Because studying them is a great way to learn
about the environment. They're such charismatic creatures and
they're so very vulnerable, both while they're hatching and when
they're in the sea. I feel that if we can protect them we can
protect other animals. It's a big challenge, and I love a challenge.”
Biologist Dr. van Dam is considered
the foremost expert on hawksbill turtles in the Caribbean. He
received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam; he did research
projects at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California,
in Puerto Rico and Mexico. He’s studied turtles’ growth
rates, movement, diet and behavior (ecology and population dynamics).
“It’s a never-ending project to study these animals,”
he says.
Van Dam was invited to Bonaire by the
Turtle Club and the Foundation to Preserve Klein Bonaire (FPKB),
which are funding him, to take over the turtle research program.
“There’s lots of potential here,” he says. “because
there are lots of interested people already. The program just
needs direction. The number of turtles looks good and healthy,
and the situation here can serve as a good example to the rest
of the Caribbean. There’s lots of potential and a training
ground here. My goal is to do it right.”
Dr. van Dam has worked on turtle research
projects in remote areas in Mexico and on Mona Island (in the
Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico) where
the turtles had no human interference except for fishermen. “Bonaire
is unusual for me in that way,” Dr. van Dam continues, “because
the turtles must co-exist with people here. I’ve worked mostly
with fishermen in the past; this is the first time with recreational
divers. It’s really remarkable because these people are very
supportive. They want to help.”
“Here in Bonaire we have two groups
of turtles. There are the nesting females with the accompanying
pursuing males. They come seasonably to reproduce, every two or
three years we believe. The second group is made up of ‘residents,’
mostly juveniles who, when they are fully grown, go back to where
they were born to reproduce. We don’t believe that our turtles
go transatlantic because it’s too hard for them to make it
up to the Gulf Stream which would take them across. Loggerheads
may go as far south as Brazil.” The exception is the Leatherbacks
which are really migratory and are strong enough to go against
the current.”
Dr. van Dam continues, “Turtles
are a shared resource because they go from place to place. If
we have protection here it will affect other places and vice versa.
Therefore this has to be a regional effort.” He likens it
to lobsters. “When they spawn the larvae most likely won’t
settle right there; it will go on downstream.”
“ We have good contacts in the
Caribbean – in Venezuela with university students there,
in Aruba, Curacao and Barbados where they have a very strong turtle
research program.”
“In Bonaire we have two regular
projects now. There are areas where we count the animals or nests,
primarily on Klein Bonaire – numbers of nests, what species
and how many. The other is counting the number of animals in feeding
areas on Klein Bonaire and in Lac Bai. These are mostly juvenile
Green and Hawksbills.
Then there are two special
projects that we want to begin. One is putting transmitters on
nesting females to find out where they go, how far and what migration
paths they take. Another project is genetic analysis of blood
samples, checking their DNA. This has already been done in the
Caribbean and we have a baseline - a data base with which to compare
it.” This is another way to determine where individual turtles
may have been by comparing the DNA of Bonaire’s turtles with
those from other islands or countries in the region.
Van Dam believes that for success there
should be a continuous pressure of law enforcement. “The
Mexicans have cracked down on poaching, and now Mexico’s
population of hawksbills is one of the largest in the world –
this just after a little over 10 years of law enforcement.”
On a positive note, Dr. van Dam says
that “turtle meat is an acquired taste,” and with a
change of generations so might there be a change in tastes! “This
would be great for the turtles, especially during the nesting
period.”
email rpvandam@yahoo.com.