Editor, Indian Ocean Turtle Newsletter
iotn.editors@gmail.com
Despite another wave of COVID and lockdowns around the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, the IOTN team hopes that everyone was able to enjoy World Sea Turtle Day on 16th June. A special mention to IOSEA, who celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the Memorandum of Understanding with an online programme of talks that can still be viewed at http://bit.ly/seaturtle_livestream. If the 18 hours of ‘Turtle TV’ are not enough online entertainment for you, the ‘Arribaba’ exhibition, a collaboration between Aradhana Seth, Dakshin Foundation and WWF-India, has also been shared online (https://arribada.in/) after its showing was interrupted by India’s response to the pandemic.
Issue 34 of IOTN brings to you the findings from stable isotope analyses in Oman, beach monitoring in Kenya, and observations of smuggling activities on nesting beaches in Pakistan. The issue also reports a range of outcomes from fisher-turtle interactions in Malaysia and India.
In addition, I draw your attention to the National Marine Turtle Action Plan (2021-2026) and Marine Megafauna Stranding Management Guidelines, both released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change in India in January 2021. These are the first documents of their kind for the country, and there has been limited discussion about them to date. IOTN will be interested to present the perspectives of different stakeholders as the action plan and stranding guidelines are implemented.
The documents are available at the URLs below:
National Marine Turtle Action Plan (2021-2026): http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/469691/national-marine-turtle-actionplan-2021-2026/
Marine Megafauna Stranding Management Guidelines: http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org. in/content/469754/marine-mega-fauna-strandingmanagement-guidelines/
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