Book highlights widespread slaughter of turtles

Between 500 and 600 loggerhead turtles used to be caught and slaughtered annually in Malta before the enactment of laws protecting fauna in the early 1990s.

Work carried out in the 1980s by German researcher Deiter Gramentz, shows that 92 loggerheads were offered for sale at the fish market in Valletta between January and December 1981.

This number were noted at about mid-day when most of the turtles on offer would have been sold.

Details about findings by Gramentz and other researchers is included in Amfibji, Rettili, u Mammiferi, a book by Alfred E. Baldacchino and Patrick J. Schembri.

The publication is one of three in the 13th set of three volumes in the Kullana Kuturali series. The other books in the set are Kitbiet Ohra tas-Seklu Dsatax by Guzè Cassar Pullicino and Malta u Ghawdex fl-Era Klassika by Horatio Vella.

The series by Publikazzjoniet Indipendenza (PIN) will eventually include 60 hard-bound volumes forming a mine of information about all aspects of the Maltese islands.

The book about amphibians, reptiles and mammals provides an easy to follow guide to all the fauna in the Maltese islands including details about the animals that used to live in this country in bygone eras and other members of the animal kingdom in other countries.

Findings by Gramentz indicate that 101 loggerheads were caught between March and May and between June and October 1986.

These turtles were either hooked on long lines used for the fishing of swordfish while others got entangled in nets used to catch lampuki, the dolphin fish.

Others were, however, purposely fished out of the sea by means of a pointed instrument. Gramentz bought all these exemplars, medically treated the injured ones, setting all of them free after fixing a red tag on each of them with the address of the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco.

According to records kept by the department of fisheries, and which are included in the book, 4,450 kilos of turtle meat were sold by the fish market in Valletta in 1960, 2,550 kilos were sold in 1961, 300 kilos each in 1962 and 1963 and 1,450 kilos in 1964.

The designs in Amfibji, Rettili, u Mammiferi were painstakingly done by Andrew Micallef who excels himself particularly in the colour plates.