Fretey, Jacques and Bruce Jaildagian 



Kawana 87; A Campaign for the Study and Protection 

 of Sea Turtles in French Guiana 



Laboratoire de Reptiles et de Amphibiens 



Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle 



Paris, France 75700 



Greenpeace International 

 New Smyrna Beach, Florida 32070 USA 



Greenpeace has been committed for the last three years to a 

 campaign for the study and protection of sea turtles 

 (particularly the leatherback) . Greenpeace came to French 

 Guyana, because this country has the most important leatherback 

 beach in the Atlantic. The name of the campaign is Kawana, a 

 Caribe-Amerindian word for the leatherback. 



The main objective of the campaign for this year was 

 surveillance of about 200 km of nesting beaches between April and 

 August. The access to these beaches is difficult and only 

 possible by sea, except for the base camp in the town of 

 Ya:Lima:Po, which is accessible by an airstrip. The team 

 consists of five local people and close to 100 volunteers from 15 

 countries. Without a doubt this infrastructure is the most 

 important for saving sea turtles. The different activities of 

 the Kawana campaign can be summarized as follows: 



Saving Adult Females 



Dead trees and clay banks fill the beach with lethal traps 

 for leatherbacks. Only a few turtles were harmed by the trees, 

 but many were trapped in the clay. The team had to work hard to 

 save a hundred turtles. 



The present nesting concentration on the beaches near the 

 estuary of Maroni poses an increasing problem since the fishermen 

 are also concentrated there. Sometimes, accidentally, 

 leatherbacks can be caught in a fishing net. We have answered 

 the fishermen's call for help to aid them in releasing the 

 turtles, dead or alive, from their nets, while attempting not to 

 damage the nets. The fishermen will be reimbursed for the damage 

 to nets, under the condition that they will give priority to the 

 turtle's safety. Regular night beach patrols reduce the kill of 

 turtles. 



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