This is horrible. Check out this link. I'll be posting more on this subject and seeing what negative attention I can personally bring to the production company that did this. In the meantime:

http://lowbagger.org/turtlebeach.html

Ah, reality TV!

wow, i wonder how trl would look if it was littered with dead baby turtles.

Vile, scumbag, idiotic, wannabe's...
death is too good for them. (the people, not the turtles)

grrrrrrrrr :mad: And I suppose they'll claim to have the properly administered permission forms for filming.......maybe they should be hit where it hurts (in the wallet) surely there must be some way to make this company pay to restore the beach and dig up the eggs before the hatchlings die a horrible death?


J

Erich, if you come up with any good ides of how we can give those murderous b******* grief, please let us know. Are their studios anywhere near you?

Oh yes, actually. Just across town. Unfortunately, it's probably too late to rescue the hatchlings, if they weren't crushed by activity on the beach. This happened months ago.

Oh dear!

Sorry to go off on a rant here, but does this really surprise anyone from the U.S.? MTV is the biggest bunch of sellouts in the history of pop culture. They, who used to be about getting out the youth vote, youth environmentalism, and pop-activism are now about reality shows and dumbing down our society faster than it can be rebuilt. Its like the 60's hippies becoming 80's and 90's yuppies.

As someone who has worked with sea turtles, I realize the importance of maintaining their beaches. This bothers me due to the callousness. Sad, really. Especially since leatherbacks are THAT endangered.

John

recieved this link just now:

http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/real_world_road_rules_challenge/2005_Jul_14_gauntlet_turtles

Oh my friggin god...

I haven't contacted the main organization down there for an update yet, but here is their email address:

info@sos-tobago.org

Once again, as soon as I learn any updated information (this was going on in June/July of this year), I'll post it here.

These are amazing, extremely endangered creatures, already having had some of their only remaining nesting beaches in the Indian Ocean compromised last December by the tsunami disaster.

The leatherback is the only turtle I've never seen alive. I worry I never will. Its a bit selfish of me to say so, but I would so desperatley like to see a real live one in my lifetime. Helping to rob the world of the largest species of marine turtle since Archelon is something in which only the most idiotic, selfish, and cruel would take pleasure.

Ah, the world of entertainment executives and their minions, perhaps?

Does anyone other than oversexed, drunk, clueless college students actually watch MTV anymore? I think they have truly sunk to the lowest levels of pop culture. They have become nearly completely irrelevant to pop culture and should be put out to pasture.

Sea-turtle killing morons...

Honestly, I think their college demographic fled ages ago. They're aimed squarely at an even less-discriminating crowd.

I have seen a leatherback sea turtle before in my life, and I have to ask: CAN'T WE GIVE THEM A FRIGGIN BREAK?! Just watching these amazing creatures returning to their beaches to lay eggs, you realize just how hard they have to work JUST TO MAKE THE NESTS!! Now they have to GUARD them too?!

Angrily,
Gabe

Well, Gabe, frankly there ought to be armed guards protecting their nesting areas anyway - preferably non-bribable types. Even without the horror of yet another reality TV show coming in and trashing their nesting beaches, there is a constant danger of people poaching sea turtles to feed the fetish for "wild caught" animals, just as in Africa and other parts of the developing world the exploding urban populations seem to have an insatiable demand for "bush meat".

but sometimes, all that money they got from selling "bush meat" is the way they support their familty

That's an excellent point you've made there, Eric. And one I'm not going to debate because it will get me into vast heaps of trouble from all directions!

Thats an easy point to debate though. One perspective might be that yes, they are feeding their families (natural instinct, i suppose), but is the premanent loss of species and biodiversity worth a few families? Its not like humans are in any dire need of food. Now clearly no one in the history of the Earth will ever pass a law to such a degree because we will never think of ourselves as equals to the rest of our planet-mates (and who'd vote for such a quack anyways). I don't hate people, I just love playing the devil's advocate and find that I can often see things from many prespectives. I have simply choosen this moment to bless you all with my graces. Feel better about your day now? Thought so.

Cheers!

If those families could be fed by giving people employment guarding those eggs, and in other aspects of ecotourism they wouldn't need to harvest the eggs. We need to re-examine priorities, not just in the US but everywhere.

Hear hear! You could make the same argument about rhino poachers or scientific whalers. The fact that there is a commercial demand for the rare animals they are destroying is a very sad reflection on humanity in general, and we should certainly be assisting them in finding a less destructive likelihood. But we should not be allowing them to continue the destruction indefinitely just because they've always done it.

Funny you should mention Rhinos...I have a good friend (ex mil sniper) who makes a pretty penny shooting...poachers. I wonder if there is enough money for him to go after MTV crews???
I'll chip in.

:grin:

Ah, you see that's exactly where I wasn't going to take this, but since you bring up the cheapest, most obvious solution, we can blame YOU, Greg. Where does he operate? Is he one of Leakey's anti-poachers, or part of a different group?

It must be noted that Amnesty International, among other human rights groups, are extremely against shoot-to-kill anti-poaching measures.

I should hope they would back-off in the case of reality TV producers, however, as their humanity is quite open to question.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...go ahead, shoot the messenger. LOL...

I will have to ask him if producers qualify as human life...he may have a bulk/bargain discount ???

g

Oh, and to answer your question : worldwide, but specializing in Botswana and the former Rhodesia. A few forays into Kenya now and again, from what I can gather.

Producers are human???? Uh uh, no way. Benthic life, maybe.

Gee, just thinking about a pretty good friend who works on "Survivor"... luckily not responsible for the program. Hope he doesn't find Tonmo.com all the same - I'm using him as a job reference!

Think i should stand up for my industry a bit and say not everyone who works in telly is evil. For every TV person (at least here in the UK) who doesn't care about sea turtles or the environment there are probably 100 who think exactly the same as everyone here, me included. I'm in this industry partly because i'm so fascinated with natural history i want to show viewers how incredible this planet is and how important it is to treat it with respect. We have a powerful position to educate for good, and much of the time I think we do that. I can't speak for reality producers, i've never done that sort of thing (sounds like i'm talking about drugs) but most of us are not greedy and uncaring, we're exactly the opposite.

Sorry if i come off a bit narky, i'm not really. Just don't think i deserve a bullet just yet. Some producers, however, are not so undeserving...

just my :twocents:

cheers
Nik

Is this not breaking the law? They should have either been given special permission, or not been allowed at all. Interfering with the survival of Red-List animals is in fact a criminal offence, as far as I'm aware, whether it be on purpose or not. I reckon there should be an investigation into this. I bet the show sucks as well! Something has to be done about it.
Dude, it's just wrong

Graeme

International laws, no matter how specific, can be very hard to enforce...in this case, the government accepted the $$$ from MTV to look the other way. You have to remember, as a society, they have been eating the turtles for generations, so a few more dead ones doesn't mean all of that much to them. Short sighted? Yes. But, I can understand their point of view. The point of view I can not stand is that of MTV...they KNEW that they were doing something morally, ethically, and legally out of bounds, and yet did it anyway.
MTV should be nuked.

greg

From the second link:

Bunim-Murray Productions worked closely with all relevant environmental and governmental agencies in Tobago, including the Ministry of Tourism of Trinidad and Tobago, the Tobago House of Assembly, the Environmental Management Authority, and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to insure that all production-related activities were ecologically sound and respectful of Tobago’s natural resources. Any claim to the contrary is false.

Sounds like lawyer speak to me. No actual mention of turtles or beaches.

I posted this to RDO.

I think they're avoiding the subject on purpose.

WOW, sorry for posting so late but this is to horrifying for a person like me (im a huge herp fan)to ignore. I hope MTV is happy that they got there crappy show filmed. This just disgusts me. Did they mention to them at all that the leatherbacks are endangered? And also that they are the largest sw turtle in the world? If there is anyway that any of us could help to restore the grounds lets say with a donation, it would be greatly appreciated tony if you could put a link to where we can get more info on how to help. Thanks...

MTV should be nuked.

greg

From orbit; it's the only way to be sure

Bonus points for grabs, here :smile:

Olaf

17 days? We're not going to last 17 hours !!!!