Historical Ecology of Sea Turtle Fishing by the Indigenous Lowland Peoples of Eastern Nicaragua: A 40-Year Record

Abstract

Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) fishing flourished along the Mosquito Coast of Central America from the mid-19th to late twentieth centuries to supply large demands in Britain and North America. Exploitation was led by British Cayman Islanders, and the indigenous population (the Miskito people) also used the turtles as a food resource, as documented by the cultural geographer Bernard Nietschmann in the 1970s. In 1977, when Nicaragua ratified CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), the United Kingdom and the United States withdrew as major exploiters of sea turtles along the Mosquito Coast. Since then, the Miskito peoples have continued to exploit the sea turtles, but current indigenous fishing practices have not yet been described. Thus, an investigation of 14 months was conducted, the results of which can be summarized as follows: Regional or community level adaptive strategies, together with remarkable technological improvements, have been integrated into the high-value lobster economy around the Miskito Cays. The technological improvements were adopted from the net fishing practices of Caymanians along with their larger wooden boats. As a result, the fishing grounds were expanded and indigenous sea turtle fishing became more productive and efficient. These modifications also meet the regulatory criteria for resource management and exploitation limits in the autonomous regions of Nicaragua.