We had a very busy day today.
After breakfast we went out on our two dives. Both sites were very pretty. I didn’t see too many things out of the ordinary. I did look out for the terminal parrotfish amongst the initial parrotfish, and I was able to find a few schools with their terminal “alpha.” Right before I ascended on my second dive, someone pointed two small snails on a sea fan. I asked the divemaster about them later, and I found out that they are called flamingo tongue snails. They’re a vibrant light orange in color with dark orange spots outlined in black rings. Each snail has a unique pattern on their back, the color comes from live mantle tissue covering the shell
After we got back we had lunch and went off to the Cayman Turtle Centre. I was actually really excited to go see the center because sea turtles are some of my favorite animals. However, I have to say, I feel like the turtles are a little bit mistreated. When we walked in, immediately in front of us was the breeding pond. This relatively small pond must have had at least 70 fully grown, barrel-sized Green Sea Turtles. I noticed a lot of scratches and sores on a lot of them. It seemed so crowded that they were injuring each other as they were moving around the pond and trying to surface for air. None of them looked healthy at all. Next we went to swim in the lagoon with the other turtles. It was very dirty, and most of the turtles would swim away from me when I got close. They didn’t seem to want to have a bunch of people swimming in their tank. After that, we went to hold some of the baby turtles. These turtles were about the size of a dinner plate were in a bunch of small concrete tanks. I was really excited to hold a turtle, but I realized very quickly that these creatures did not want to be held. They would always try to swim away when people grabbed them, and when they were pulled out of the water, they would flail with their fins until they were put back in. In some of the tanks, you can actually, step inside to grab the turtles easier. These turtles seemed very stressed. Some of them even appeared a little sick. Unfortunately, this is quite likely if they are being held hundreds of times each day. It’s very easy for them to pick up on human diseases. There were larger concrete tanks holding more fully grown turtles. All of them seemed to circle the tank and slap at the sides with their fins.
Over all, I have some concerns. Turtles are pelagic animals. In the wild, they travel, thousands of miles in their lifetime, and can reach depths up to 500 feet. These turtles all spent their lives in small tanks. Many appeared sunbleached, likely because they couldn’t descend too far below the surface and escape from the hot sun. I read a few articles written about the Centre. For aforementioned reasons, most concluded that sea turtles are among the worst animals to farm. One former employee reported that she witnessed chlorine powder being dumped into the pond without any of the turtles being moved.
The most ironic part of all of this: There was a turtle meat vendor right across the street.
After we got back from the turtle center, we had a discussion about the ethicality of Stingray City. What I mostly took away from the debate was that Stingrays are wild animals, and because of our interaction, we have altered the behavior of a certain population, most like toward a heavy human reliance. In some ways, it has brought lots of attention to stingrays, and therefore lead to the creation of many conservation efforts, however, Stingray city may also be detrimental to the stingrays. I really am excited to go to see it and make my own decision.
Finally, after dinner we went night snorkelling. I was a stingray on the bottom. Stingrays are nocturnal and they hunt at night. There was also a tarpon hunting nearby us well. It was very interesting seeing all the shrimp, plankton and bioluminescent organisms that were attracted to the light. The reef look so different at night.
Can’t wait for tomorrow!
