Endangered Sea Turtle Shells Seized At Miami International

MIAMI, FL —U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on Thursday displayed the equivalent of 100 critically endangered sea turtle shells that were seized late last year as they passed through an air cargo facility at Miami International Airport.

The agency's Zach Mann told Patch the five boxes of sea turtle shells, or scutes as they are called, represent one of the largest such seizures of its kind. The shells were listed on the cargo manifest as "plastic recycle" and painted in blue chalk to throw off agents.

Mann said the shells were likely going to end up as hair berets, glasses and other consumer items that could have been sold at markets in Asia. Mann said the shells came from the Caribbean basin.

"When they wiped the paint off, they said 'this looks like sea turtle shells,'" Mann said of the agents who spotted the boxes. Officers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspectors confirmed the shells to be from two types of sea turtles.

"In this case, FWS wildlife inspectors closely examined the pattern and number of scutes in the shipment," officials said. "This information helped them identify the species and approximate number of turtles that were found."

Each turtle shell has a top, called a carapase, and a bottom, called a plastron. The shell is made up of large, hard scales that are referred to as scutes. Most turtles have 13 scutes on the top shell, which can be multiples shapes, colors, and sizes, according to agency officials.

In this case, about 65 percent of the 1423 scutes in the seizure were from hawksbill sea turtles and the other 35 percent were from green sea turtles.

Aurelia Skipwith, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said wildlife trafficking is a serious problem throughout the world.

"Sea turtles are critical members of healthy ocean ecosystems. Unfortunately, they are also severely impacted by the illegal wildlife trade," Skipwith said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Port Director Robert Del Toro at Miami International Airport said his agency has been working collaboratively with other agencies to deter illegal wildlife shipments such as turtle shells from entering the United States.

“Unfortunately, turtle shell shipments occur often and CBP’s ability to properly identify the presence of turtles shells helps combat the illegal trade of endangered sea turtle species," Del Toro said.

Hawksbill sea turtles are named for their prominent hooked beaks. Adults range in size from 30 to 36 inches and weigh 100 to 200 pounds while green sea turtles grow to a maximum size of about 4 feet and can weigh as much as 440 pounds, officials said.

In addition to threatening the habitats of sea turtles, Mann said wildlife trafficking also hurts tourism in countries where the turtles are taken.

"It's a bigger, global picture when you are looking at various countries trying to protect their economic vitality with things such as ecotourism, or protecting their fisheries when people illegally capture, poach and then smuggle these endangered species around the world to be sold as trinkets at markets," Mann told Patch.