Fate of hawksbill is the same as green turtle. They are hunt and then slaughtered. Only the use is different. Green turtle is hunt for its meats while hawksbill is hunt for its carapace as the raw material for souvenirs. They have same fate, being slaughtered although protected by law. The weak law enforcement becomes one of the trigger of the existence of business in hawksbill trade, while many turtles have disappear.
The business of souvenir trade made from hawksbill turtle concentrated in Yogyakarta has stimulated the intensive capture of hawksbill in several areas. In order to fulfilled the demand of raw material the souvenir production, the craftmen and bussinesmen of hawksbill cooperated with number of hawksbill collector in Sulawesi, Flores, Madura, Nusa Tenggara, and Riau Islands Sumatera.
One of the central catching areas is in South Sulawesi. In this area there are many collectors of hawksbill carapace such as in Poutere, Galesong in Takalar Regent, and Satanga Island. In 2001 ProFauna investigator has visited 12 different locations including 9 islands in Sulawesi to trace the route of hawksbill trade route.
One of the important areas in hawksbill trade bussines is Poutere South Sulawesi, about 5 km from Makassar downtown. In Poutere, there is collector of hawksbill carapace names Jumain who own ware house near to Poutere (Poutere Street No. 74/102). Besdides collecting hawksbill carapace, Jumain also collects shark fin and sea cucumbers.
The hawksbill carapaces kept in Jumain are obtained not only from Makaassar, Galesong and Satanga Island, but also from other places except Makassar. While other places besides Makassar are from Nusa Tenggara such as Satengar Island, Kawasan Island, Saelus Island, North Maluku Islands, South-East Sulawesi (Buton Area), Madura, and islands around South Kalimantan. This fact describe that the trade on hawksbill souvenir has stimulate massive catching on turtles throughout the entire ocean of hawksbill habitat.
Jumain admits he can at least 1 time in a month to shipped average 100 kg hawksbill carapace to the number of exporters in Makassar. This fact is interested to trace because most exporters states that they are no longer export hawksbill. Jumain also shipped his hawksbills carapace to Yogyakarta and Klaten.
He admits to ProFauna and JWCS investigators he states that he is able to supply 400 kg of hawksbill carapace in each year if there is demand. Jumain has team consist of 6 men who ready to collect hawksbill carapace from fishermen.
The activity of hawksbill catching is not only happen in Sulawesi but also in Flores. ProFauna Indonesia investigator has visited several areas and an island in West Nusa Tenggara to collect data of hawksbill catching. The good news is when the governments conducting strict law enforcement toward the hawksbill traders in Bali in 2001-2002, several hawksbill catchers in Flores stop their catching activities and change their earnings into common fishermen or ship maker. This fact proved that by doing strict law enforcement toward the traders has brought effective result to protect turtles from trading.
Although the turtle buntings has much declined, the hawksbill catching in smaller scale still continues in some islands in Flores such as in Kukusan, Mesa, Papagarang, and Bajo. In this area, one hawksbill costs for Rp 100.000-200.000. They catch turtles using nets or dragnet. The turtle then shipped Tanjung Benoa Bali and Makassar.
Before 2000 several fishermen in Flores catch turtle in order to ship to Bali. A former turtle catcher in Menjangan Island admitted he is able to catch 10-70 turtles including hawksbill, only in a day. He used to ship 200-300 turtles to Bali once in two months. From the 200 sea turtles shipped to Bali usually 20 % of them died of dehydration. However, at this moment the fishermen in Flores state that it is difficult to catch turtles in Flores Waters. It might be an indication of the declining number of turtle in nature as the result of intensive hunting’s.