(CMR) As the Cayman Islands revealed its official national dish, stew turtle, on Monday, news emerged that eight children and an adult lost their lives after consuming sea turtle meat on Pemba Island in the Zanzibar archipelago last week. Additionally, 78 others were hospitalized.
Despite being considered a delicacy by Zanzibar’s people, sea turtle meat periodically leads to fatalities due to chelonitoxism, a form of food poisoning.
“Chelonitoxism is caused by eating sea turtle meat contaminated with chelonitoxins, which are thought to accumulate from the environment without affecting the turtle. Initially, gastrointestinal symptoms occur, followed by neurologic, hepatic, and renal toxicity,” the National Library of Medicine says.
Symptoms of chelonitoxism begin to show up within hours to a week following ingestion of turtle meat which has not been repeatedly parboiled. Children are especially susceptible, and the toxins have been reported to transfer readily via breastfeeding, even when the mother experiences no illness.
Mkoani District medical officer Dr. Haji Bakari told The Associated Press that laboratory tests had confirmed all the victims who died last week had eaten sea turtle meat. Authorities in Zanzibar, which is a semi-autonomous region of the East African nation of Tanzania, sent a disaster management team led by Hamza Hassan Juma, who urged people to avoid consuming sea turtles.
This is not the first time that several people have died after consuming turtle meat in that region.
In 2021, seven people, including a three-year-old, died on Tanzania's Pemba island after eating poisonous turtle meat. Three others were also hospitalized after five families on Pemba island consumed the meat.
Turtle meat is a delicacy enjoyed in the Cayman Islands for decades. Cayman Turtle Centre, formerly Cayman Turtle Farms Ltd., was started in 1968 as wild sea turtles were declining rapidly due to being poached. The farm hatched green sea turtles and raised them for meat while also releasing year-old hatchlings into the ocean and supporting turtle research . By selling turtle meat, it reduced the incentive for poachers to take endangered wild turtles.
Founded by the British businessman Antony Fisher (later Sir Antony), Irvin Naylor, a Pennsylvania businessman, and others, the Cayman Turtle Farm operated as a for-profit company until 1983. It was eventually taken over by the Government, serving as a major tourist attraction while still carrying out conservation efforts.
While green turtles are still considered endangered, the Turtle Centre is believed to sell thousands of pounds of turtle meat yearly.
Thousands of tourists visit the facility yearly; however, in recent times, some visitors have spoken out against the facility when they found out a large number of turtles are sold for meat.
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