WILDLIFE activists are outraged over the latest set of photos to have surfaced on the Internet showing people sitting on a leatherback turtle.
The images, which can be seen on Trini Eco Warriors' Facebook page, depict a group of five friends, taking turns to sit and lounge on the leatherback turtle, which is an endangered species.
"This is ridiculous, these people need to be made some kind of an example of with some kind of penalty," said chairman of Nature Seekers, Suzan Lakhan-Baptiste.
Lakhan-Baptiste said she has devoted her life to the care and protection of these endangered creatures and is saddened "and angry" to know that Trinidadians cannot see the value in caring.
"People have been doing these things all the time, we have photos of them and no legal action is taken in terms of getting them reprimanded and charged and so it becomes like a fun and game and an insult to people's contribution towards conservation," she said.
In February, Minister of Housing and the Environment Roodal Moonilal approved more than $.5 million for payment of community personnel to patrol 15 beaches for the protection of nesting turtles.
And while Lakhan-Baptiste believes this is a step in the right direction, "we really need to do a lot more enforcement" to protect these animals.
"This is an endangered species and a lot more emphasis should be placed on protecting them".
"The country should step up its measures to ensure that this species is protected...they should make prohibitions on the beaches that these animals come ashore," she said.
Stephen Broadbridge, a member of the board at Trini Eco Warriors, said while people think its fun to sit on the turtle, they fail to realise that they are killing the mammal.
"Their back gets very flat and what happens when people in Trinidad decide to ride on them is that they can cause damage to them," he said.
Broadbridge said the turtle, although visibly strong, has a lot of small bones that when weight is put on it can break making it difficult for them to swim.
"So what they are in fact doing when they climb on a turtle is very possibly killing the turtle so it all looks very nice and fun but what you are doing is destroying an ancient creature all for the sake of having a ride and being stupid," he said.
The annual turtle nesting season starts in March and lasts for six months.
Following the posting of the images on Facebook and other social networking sites, one of the persons photographed sitting on the turtle posted a note on the Trini Eco Warriors' Facebook page asking people to forgive her.
"Firstly, I must apologise on behalf of my friends and myself for what was obviously our ignorance on the matter. We are all aware of the turtles being an endangered species yes, however, we were unaware of the danger posed by sitting on it. I mean, one would assume its shell is hard, it is a rather large animal so no harm was being caused. It was truly ignorance on our part and please forgive us for that," she wrote.
