Friday, May 21, 2010

PHI 2010 MWF, 8am (closed by Thursday next week, 11pm)

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do not believe it is fair to just steal turtle offsprings for one's pleasure. The Costa Rican population are not starving, there is no famine going on over there so there is no need to wipe out the sea turtle population. There are many other ways to get food and endangering the sea turtle population is not among them. I would understand if the people were starving and that was their only way to survive however, that is not the case and it should be stopped. The only way to put an end to such an act would be to sign a petition and for the Costa Rican government to pass a law that fines people for stealing an offspring of nay animal. It would be wiser for the human to wait until the sea turtle population or any species' population is overabundant. Once that is achieved then it would be logical for human to steal the offsprings of a turtle or any other animal in order to control their population. Hence, these people should not endanger the sea turtle population because it is stealing when you take some thing that is not yours. I doubt that any human would be pleased if their babies were taken away from them. There should be a law passed stopping such an act of immorality because once the specie population increases to an extend then it would be ok to steal offsprings of the species so that their population are stabilized.

By Elnay Hasanov

Johanna Montanez said...

It is evident that people have always taken advantages of many situations in life. This is not the first time in which people abuse of animals that later on become on endangered species. For instance, elephants have been hunted in order to take their tusks and sell them in the black market. People like to make easy and fast money, and most of illegal activities give a huge profit in a short time to its owners. I think the Costa Rican people are not starving; however, there may be a high unemployment there, and these poaches need to find a way to survive. (It does not mean I agree with what poachers are doing or that it is correct to do it in these cases). Also, many poaches are ignorant, and they don’t see the huge impact they are doing to the ecosystem and to themselves. Costa Rica receives a lot of tourist mainly because of its fauna and flora, so its own citizens are destroying one way of gaining legal money. I agree with Elnay the Costa Rican government should create a law against hunting sea turtle. It is rewarding to know that some groups such as “grupo tortugero” are winning the battle against these poachers, and the turtles are increasing their population.

Johanna Montanez

Milton Saint Juste said...

I personally do not have any problem with the fact that the costa rican population prefers turtles' eggs over chicken eggs or any other animal's eggs for what ever the reason might be. This a fundamental right that no one can take away from them, the right to choose.
However, knowing all the ecological problems that this practice can cause, it is a different story and absolutely unacceptable. I don't think the population is that hungry and there probably are other options beside taking the eggs of an already endangered specie.
They(turtles) aren't less important than the human kind.They have the right to exist as we do therefore we have to protect them from extinction.
How can we put an end to that horrible practice? In my humble opinion the mass in Costa Rica that happens to be the one doing that act is not entirely the one to blame.I believe this is a n unfortunate result of lack of government responsibility.i see it this way because obviously, the population for some reasons like ignorance won't ever have the kindness to stop a such act. the costa rican government must intervene. they should be a severe law prohibiting such an horrible act not just for turtles' eggs but every endangered species.

Anonymous said...

Diana Laguerre said....
Let’s face it, some animals are delicious; fish and shrimp are delicious. Apparently, turtle eggs are delicious, but that doesn't seem like a valid argument. Poaching of turtle eggs in Costa Rica is definitely something that has happened due to ignorance. Unfortunately, the people who are involved with doing this probably have no idea what they are causing and what impact they are having on the future of the species. All animals are connected by the food chain and depend on each other, when you take even one species out of the equation it throws off the whole chain. I believe they should have someone to head out to Coast Rica to inform and teach them of the danger and harm they are doing. If someone doesn’t have knowledge of going on, they would not they know what they're doing is harming the species population.

By Diana Laguerre

Unknown said...

Costa Rica or "Rich Coast" is said to be a "naturist’s wonderland" due to is massive mountain ranges, tropical rain-forests, enchanting beaches, and fascinating volcanoes. But who would've thought that this paradise land have such horrible poaching habits. The poaching of the leatherback turtle eggs is a severe crime, and it still goes on today in Costa Rica. But why are these egg poachers doing such dreadful acts? Do people who harvest the eggs not know that gathering or collecting these eggs is literally putting the leatherback and various turtles into extinction? Or is it the tunnel vision that makes them only think about making money from gathering the eggs rather than caring about what they're doing to these helpless turtles. Well, for one, I believe that the government of Costa Rica has a lot to say about this. The Costa Rican government literally let people harvest the eggs for more than 11 years! They call it " Controlled Harvest" , ironically, the controlled harvest has very little police regulation and involvement. So what control do they have over the harvest? Saying so, the Costa Rican government should have more regulations in this controlled harvest, so that the turtles one day won't be wiped off the face of this planet.

Flavio T. Moreira

Olga Mejia said...

Ignorance or hunger was the first question it came to mind after seeing the first pictures of this article. After a couple of minutes reading and seeing the other pictures carefully, I came to the conclusion that my brothers and sister from Costa Rica are not suffering of hunger. They are not having such terrible crisis that will make them poach for turtle eggs. Costa Ricans are just taking advantage of a gift that Mother Nature gave them. A lot of people justified the poaching saying that many people prefer to eat turtle eggs than chicken or any other animal eggs. They say that if people can eat chicken eggs why can’t they poach for turtle eggs. So the other question here is do they ignore that marine turtles are critically endangered? I wouldn’t think so. As humans we need to stop this things and not let them affect our ecological system, not only Costa Ricans but all of us should stop this before it gets too late.

Jessica Quintero said...

To start I'd like to say that it is the governments responsibility to protect their territory and everything in it. It should be shameful to admit that you have lost a species do to lack of action and permitting your citizens to execute such heinous acts. There are certain people in Costa Rica who may be unaware of the severity of their actions due to their lack of knowledge. After all if they were of higher economic status they would not even bother to poach as they would not need the money earned from selling the eggs and I highly doubt the man with 4500 eggs was going to eat them all himself. Poverty does not justify these actions, however. And the fact that turtles are endangered should be clarified because it could be argued that it is hypocritical to take chicken eggs and not turtle eggs. In addition chicken eggs are not only massively produced but to my vague knowledge have an easier process then turtles. Now I'd like to point out that it is this "I only care about myself in the now" attitude that is bringing our world to an end. There are so many ecologically hazardous actions occurring all over the world and the majority, if not all, the people committing these actions are aware of the consequences but they are only concerned with the economical gain in the present and their personal short-term benefit. They disregard the future of the world and the price the future generations will pay for those actions. We are one world and as one we should help each other instead of dividing into nations. The Costa Rican government does not need aid from other governments to solve this issue but in case it did due to poverty and famine then other countries could step in and promote solutions such as economic and nonperishable donations. In addition, employment could be created or at least attempts to create or something along those lines. It's the idea of teaching a man to fish versus giving him a fish.

Katherine said...

I'm appalled at how some people really don't care about killing animals. I can understand the people who kill animals to eat and to survive, but I don't understand the people who kill animals for fun. These poachers are endangering many species that are part of our very important food chain. I don't think that Costa Ricans live in a country of extreme poverty. There may be some poor people in that country, but it doesn't mean they have to take turtle eggs for food. There are many other ways to find food. They can afford to feed themselves and their families. Why do they have to pick on a helpless animal? These sea turtles are laying eggs and after they lay them people come to take them away to take home to eat. Many sea turtles will never get a chance to see how wonderful planet earth really is because of people who dont't make good choices. I think the Costa Ricans know that when they take the sea turtle eggs they will be able to eat, but what they don't realize is how it creates an imbalance in the food chain.

Tasha said...

All I have to say is that the world is going to end soon if those people continue to steal, kill, and eat our animals. When the animals become extinct, the only thing humans will turn to for food is each other.(Maybe we could become vegetarians...lol yea right)

olamilekan said...

I consider stealing turtles as wrong and ju8st plain stupid. what is the point of taking the turtle? you want the turtle to make a quick buck or make some fluffy pancakes for? if the turtles become extinct and the food chain will probably crumble. in the end our food supple will begin to slowly dissapear and then the world will be in a tragedy.

Anonymous said...

The Costa Rican legislation must do something to stop this! It is not fair for humans to steal turtle offspring to make business. This specie can not be compare to chicken (in which they are millions and the offspring is controlled to satisfy egg consumers all over the world). On the other hand, this turtles and in danger of extinction thanks to the Costa Rican population, they have to understand that such animal's offspring can not be stolen, and specially when the turtles population declines everyday. Like Elnay Hasanov stated above, "The only way to put an end to such an act would be to sign a petition and for the Costa Rican government to pass a law that fines people for stealing an offspring of nay animal."I also believe that this would be the wiser solution, and to actually have guards and volunteers to protect this animals until their population has increased to the point were the eggs can be consumed.

by: Andres Suarez

Anonymous said...

It is depressing that some people are exploiting the animals' powerlessness to stop humans from causing them harm. With our advanced weaponry we already hold a huge advantage over most, if not all, animals. Once hatched, it is extremely difficult for turtles to make it sea and not all of them survive the voyage. By taking their eggs, we are lowering the percentage of turtles that will make it to the ocean and ensure the continuation of the species. Many kinds of turtles are already facing the threat of extinction. The poaching of turtle eggs has been made illegal in many parts of the world, Costa Rica included. However, Costa Rica hasn't banned poaching in all of it's beaches. In Ostinal beach it is legal to poach eggs during the first 48 hours of a massive nesting phenomenon. This enables poachers to take eggs from other beaches and claim they come from Ostinal. Why are people doing this to turtles? As long as there is a demand for something people will always find a way to make an easy dollar off of it. The turtle market is booming and many are quick to take advantage. How do we stop this? We must get the word out and educate the people about what is going on. Many turtle eaters aren't aware of the injustice being thrust upon innocent turtles. There have already been instances in which people have publicly spoken out against this horrible practice and it resulted in a "decrease of the consumption of sea turtle eggs." We must continue to inform the masses in order to eliminate turtle poaching once and for all.

Huari, Karla G.

Giuseppe Napoli said...

In my opinion,the fact that turtles are not humans doesn't mean that the phrase "steal from them" can't be applied here. It is true that their eggs technically don't belong to them, but to nature instead; even though, that doesn't mean humans have the right to steal the turtles' offspring for any reason; you can call it poverty or ignorance or hunger or however you want to call it. The end product is the same: there are thousands of potential turtles that will never be able to actually live. I don't really care about what they're doing with the eggs afterwards because the moment humans taken them is when damage is done. Whether turtle's pancakes are better than chicken's pancakes I don't have an opinion; but we can at least consume chicken's eggs because that is the purpose for those eggs. We have chickens specifically to produce eggs for consumption. Instead, we don't raise turtles to eat their eggs later. At the end, what will happen is that those species of turtles, which are already endangered, will disappear off the face of the earth. All because of human's stupidity. The solution I see here is to create regulations in order that these little turtles can't be taken away (at least until the population of turtles reaches a normal level). Finally, when the population is back to normal, some of those regulations should still be applied so that we don't go back to where we are right now.

Pierre, melinda said...

the poaching of ones unborn is so wrong. Humans are always finding a way to make so type of capital along the way. and by doing that, they are in disrupt of the ecosystem. These turtles unborn deserve to be given chance to experience life. animals also have the rights to reproduce and to live until their time. how would someone like for someone to put them under anesthetic and fetch their eggs to sell. i think that is probably done around the world. In the end, poaching is just straight wrong.

Georges B. said...

I disagree with the phrase : Turtle do not OWN their egg ? How come ? Human beings reproduce themselves, don’t they own their children ? Aren’t I for my parent ? An example : if animals or humans didn’t consider their eggs and children theirs then why protect them. Why is it a responsibility ? If it was not the case for not considering what you created yours then none of us would excites. There wouldn’t be so many people or animals in the world because not all of us would survive the harshness of mother nature in some places.
I believe there should be a law that states how many eggs must be poached each year or season. Nobody would love to see their creations, a part of themselves being taken and eaten away for profit. But I guess what is happening to the turtle is the same thing happening with human exploitation. There will be a law but somewhere in the darkness, somebody is still doing it and making huge profit. Now the big question I ask myself is: do morals REALLY EXCITE ? Is it human nature to be the way we are? The more we evolve the more harm we do to ourselves. Like always, I am not taking any sides I am just looking, observing and questioning.

Georges Bretous

Ps; i like tasha's comment but human beings cannot live on veggies alone. I personally LOVE MEAT. Maybe its because we got accustomed to it. I wonder, if i had never eaten meat before would it bother me ? i don't think so. I guess it a choice we human beings decide to make. Oh and one more thing, if we had never eaten meat before our bodies would evolve in such a way that veggies would be enough but that's millions of years of development.

Unknown said...

I seriously do not believe any taking of any breed of turlte eggs is the right thing, the moral thing to do. Costa Rica is known for being a paradise, then why resort to taking the future of some of the very animals that bring tourism to their country? My family from Nicaragua once brought back home to Miami turlte eggs and I was incredibly upset at the sight of them being eaten by my very family. In the end this will eventually hurt Costa Rica economically and politically. When the first species of turtle goes extinct considering almost all turtles are endangered the world will point the finger at Costa Rica first and then what will they do? By: Joseph Castillo

Joana Hecker said...

It is sad to see how beings like turtles cannot be defended just because they are not humans. Some people think that just because animals cannot talk, they cannot feel sadness, happiness, anxiety or even horror. These poor mothers (turtles) that are standing there watching bigger (and more stupid) creatures (humans) taking away their offspring without being able to fight or even protest, are surely as scared as a human mother would be of her child being taken away. As it is stated in Oscar Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Human beings are called rational animals, but I think that of rational they don’t even have a hair. The avariciousness of men has gone too far. Costa Rica is not recognized as the wealthiest country of the world, it is true. But among its Latin American neighbors it surely stands in a good position. If they do have the resources to survive, to feed the families that live there, and to give jobs to those who need them, why do this people are committing such “genocide”? The only answer I find to this is money.
Another point that I find important to highlight is the role of every single animal to the earth’s ecosystem, and how this will be affected by missing any specie that lives in it. I will take the time to name again why men are everything BUT rational. How can people be so IGNORANT not to know that if they kill animals in such huge quantities they are threatening our own future in this planet? They are facing mother’s nature will. Since men have been able to create so much in this world, they think that they can also destroy what nature has given to us. Our specie, as well as every other, was given an opportunity to live in such a perfect place. We do not own this planet, it owns us. We are just borrowing what it has to give to us. We depend in such a way of it that if it dies it takes with it the almost 6 billion of people that are breathing right now. Why do we think we are so smart to take away something that does not belong to us? Isn’t that stealing? We are taking away the source of our lives with no apparent reason.
Because of the reasons mention before I just think that we, human beings, are becoming less intelligent every day. We do not take the time to think about consequences, and we do not care about understanding what is happening to us. If the oil spilling is not going to kill sea animals, are we going to do it? That is simple stupidity.

Anonymous said...

Individuals will do what ever is necessary to survive. What is occurring in Costa Rica is a prime example of this. Poachers taking turtle eggs for who knows what reason exactly. People say turtle eggs make fluffier and better pancakes, but most poachers aren't doing it to make pancakes for their families. There is money to be made from these sea turtles as they are sold to restaurants. The Costa Rican government needs to enforce authority and law against those poachers endangering the sea turtles. Many species of sea turtles are becoming more and more critically instinct. Without any proper authority, it will only be a matter of time before the population of sea turtles is significantly low.

ALEXANDER VALDES

Anonymous said...

As much as it hurts for me to see this, it's life. We all might have our own opinions about how ignorant, how stupid, and how inhumane they are; yet we are not in their shoes and we do not see it the way they do. We all come from different backgrounds, we hold different traditions and customs, and we all make our own decisions in life that in our own eyes we are nothing less than perfect. In certain countries, as Americans, we are seen as pompous, arrogant, self centered idiots. To a certain extant I agree, but at the same time I relax and just think to myself that I am no one to judge to topics I am foreign about.
By poaching these turtles some people might be making the money they need to meet ends or just be able to afford the bare necessities. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying what the Costa Ricans are doing is right, honestly I think that it's just plain cruel, but all I am trying to say is that we don't know the reasons that they are doing these things. Before we jump the gun and make hasty generalizations about the Costa Ricans and their customs, lets educate ourselves.

-Alexander Marte

Javier Zarraluqui said...

The sea turtle population is already endangered. To reproduce, sea turtles need to reach full maturity, which is 17 years of age. By that time most of the sea turtles have been caught or killed by a careless boater. We need to preserve our sea turtles, not eat them. I believe that what is happening in Costa Rica is due to ingnorace and the obsession for money. If we kill all of our wild life we will not have a stable food chain. Our oceans will become polluted and unsanitary. Some one needs to establish regulations for the poaching of the eggs. Thousands of turtles are stolen for food and our pleasures. Ignorance is unfortunately a main factor in this devastation, thousands of sea turtles are being killed daily and it is something that's unnecessary to live a regular life. The ignorance of people kills and they do not have sympathy for our ecology and wild life. I believe a law should be passed to control and sustain the outburst of poaching.

Anonymous said...

Ignorance and Poverty may not be a direct link for such actions that are taking place in Costa Rica but it is a MAJOR factor to the decline of various turtle species in the area. Aside from Ignorance and large industries demanding poaching to receive its supplies, there is a lack of moral and education in these areas having its natives take eggs from a turtke who just finsihed laying them. Big Associations like PETA and ASPCA take extreme actions to sort of force animal education and rights on companies encouraging inproper use of animals. Maybe they need to set up shop in places like Costa Rica and educate the locals on whats going on in their area and the effects they are causing on the turtle population and probabaly many other species.

Carla Barahona

Brittany Nguyen said...

Unfortunately, I do not much on the economic state of Costa Rica right now; I agree with the comments above. Since these people are not starving they do not need to poach on endangered animals. Yes it is hypocritical to say not to eat these eggs and eat other eggs such as chicken or fish; but the circumstances are very different it seems as chicken and fish have far more eggs being produced. Also since there are mass productions of chicken meat there are many chickens to lay eggs as well. Point is being that these turtles are scarce how are they to expand their species if their offspring are being stripped away from them the moment they lay. In addition, since these animals are slower than others it sad to say but they are basically helpless. This very similar to the seals in Alaska and Canada there are poachers who hunt baby seals for the fun of the game they too are helpless while hunters bash their heads in with their clubs. One man’s happiness is another ones tragedy.

Danney Salvatierra said...

I look at those unpleasant pictures and seriously can't find a logical justification. I don't understand why such horrible events against nature keep on happening. Honestly, its not a matter of poverty or ignorance, its a matter of integrity and morality. And starving? with many other sources of food at hand? I don't think so. I think that the Costa Rican government should definitely take action because sea turtles are in high risk of extinction and that could drastically affect the environment and will end up affecting us as well.

Danney Salvatierra

Shawnese Eberhart said...

I don't understand why the people are doing this. There is no real justification for them to be stealing the eggs. I can see if it was for money or some big ancient secret but it’s for pancakes. What’s so special about them? That’s like stealing the remains of the Arctic glaciers because what you put it in will stay cold longer. The people don’t seem to be too concerned with the fact that the turtles are extinct. They do need to be educated on what’s going on and possibly a cooking class.

Anonymous said...

Animals were put on this planet to serve man. Therefore, animal rights should not trump human rights. For example, if a human is starving, he or she should be able to consume animal products such as turtle eggs. However, it may be prudent to limit harvesting of turtle eggs somewhat to prevent the species from going extinct.

Cristina M. Lee

Anonymous said...

I believe is both; poverty and ignorance but on the this one poverty is heavier on the balance than that of ignorance, even though ignorance comes hand to hand with poverty especially in third world countries in which the school system depends on the amount of money your family makes. People (poor) will always look for any methods or any means necessary to put food on their table in this case by poaching leatherback turtles eggs. Ignorance creates a chain reaction, specially in those countries in which jobs scarce, pushing honest yet very poor people look for unethical means to find money. Government should definitely do something and put laws or even if it comes down to close the beach where the leather back turtle are located to help our ecosystem.

David Herrera

Anonymous said...

I do believe that something should be done about the situation in Costa Rica, if not now then it would be to late for the Costa Rican government to step in and really change the stealing of turtle eggs because that’s what that is its stealing pretty much. Like in the case of the man that was caught with 4,500 eggs what is that, their destroying and killing whole species of turtles for the whole reason that you can have better pancakes that’s not acceptable , I understand that some cultures have different taste in food but when it comes to the almost extinctions of whole species legislation and laws should be passed to stop that. For example in Florida theirs regulations when lobster seasons comes and the laws are enforced that say you can get an x number of lobsters and if you go over that number there’s fines to pay for doing that, I believe that something like that should be done in Costa Rica.

By Norland Sanchez

Anonymous said...

in my opinion, the Costa Rican legislation have no right to allow the poaching to happen.leatherback sea turtles already considered to be endangered on a global level.poaching is so wrong,their should be a way to stop it somehow. poverty and ignornance to me is not the only reason for these poachers to steal the turtle eggs.so sad to watch beautiful creatures endangered.

Anonymous said...

p.s: by Nicole Khoury the last post.