Trafficking sea turtles

1979: I was 23, inexperienced maybe but, boy, was I raring to go! It was my first big trip abroad. In the middle of the Indian Ocean, I climbed aboard an old cargo boat chartered by traffickers. My camera case was an old fishing bag my Dad had given me. Inside, I had a well-worn Olympus OM-2 and three Zuiko prime lenses: a 24, 50, and 200 mm. The height of luxury, I had fifty-odd rolls of Kodachrome film carefully lined up in an X Ray lead-lined bag. Fast-forward 37 years and the film has suffered from the ravages of time, which explains the somewhat vintage appearance of this portfolio!

Sea turtles are poached for their shell and flesh: a highly sought-after delicacy in traditional soups. Traffickers use a range of hunting techniques, but what usually happens is that the turtles are harpooned at the surface while mating, or captured when venturing out on to beaches to lay their eggs. Over and above these practices which are endangering a species whose numbers are plummeting, what desperately requires indictment are the cruel conditions in which turtles are killed. During this reporting assignment, I witnessed poachers committing unbelievably cruel acts of violence on turtles while they were still alive: using a machete to hack off their four flippers before eviscerating them. In retrospect, it was these revolting barbaric scenes that probably sparked my committed campaigning for the animal cause.