The Biggest Threat To Sea Turtles Isn't Egg Poaching
It absolutely irks me when people say that sea turtle egg poachers are just poor folks trying to feed their families for two reasons: A) poverty is not an excuse for humans to drive species to extinction; money is expendable but life is not, and B) it is simply not true. Especially in Latin America, where most sea turtle egg poaching takes place, the wildlife trade is directly linked to the violent cartels and other criminal syndicates who are not poor and are impossible to defend. Those who profit off of sea turtles eggs profit off of not just shark fins, but also cocaine, weapons, and sometimes even human beings, and in too many countries in the region the people who are supposed to enforce the law are bought off by these criminals. Even with the horrible impact of sea turtle egg poaching, this alone is not what is driving them to extinction, nor is the legal (albeit barbaric and wrong) hunting taking place in countries like Australia, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea. Nature i