Limpus et al., 2003:

"Changes in fisheries regulations in 1958 opened the way for commercial harvesting of turtles from the northern Great Barrier Reef.  Records contained in the 1956-1958 Queensland Department of Harbours and Marine files indicate that the Cairns based Whittaker brothers (Snowy and Neil), of the fishing vessel Trader Horn,  lobbied during 1956 and 1957 via their local member of parliament, G.W. Wallace MLA, to have permits issued to harvest turtles in north Queensland.

Their political lobbying was successful, and on 4 September 1958, the Order in Council of 7 September 1950 under the Queensland Fisheries Act was repealed and a new Order in Council declared which restricted the year round closed season for harvesting green turtles to south of 15°S.  The year round closed season for turtle egg harvest throughout Queensland was retained.  This meant that turtles could be harvested without restriction in Queensland north of 15°S.

Neil and Snowy Whittaker's vessel for the turtle harvesting from Raine Island was the Trader Horn:  displacement 70 tons, engine 115HP, overall length 72ft, beam 17ft, draft 7ft, wooden hull, built by Alf Hansen of Cairns (N. Whittaker, pers. comm.).  She carried 7 dories and a crew of 12 (Anon, 1959a). According to Neil, the Trader Horn had a freezer capacity of about 50 000 lb (22 700 kg); most of the turtles were taken from Raine Island but some came from Moulter Cay; Moulter was hard to work when a swell was running; they had no problem capturing 100 turtles per night for slaughter on every trip; turtles were turned on the beach at night, killed and partly butchered on the beach next morning, loaded on a dory (Fig. 11A), transferred to the Trader Horn where the meat was washed on the deck and butchering completed (Fig 11B); only meat (=muscle) was taken.

According to G.E. Rowell (in litt. to Queensland Department of Harbours and Marine, 21 April 1959), once the refrigerated holds were filled with turtle meat, killing ceased and the Trader Horn's deck was loaded with live turtle for the return trip to Cairns (Fig. 11C).

The Whittaker's turtle harvesting enterprise was initiated with a small unquantified harvest from an unstated origin from early in the nesting season in late 1958 (Anon, 1959b).

The first substantial harvest occurred during a two week trip to Raine Island in January 1959 (Anon, 1959b). The second major expedition to harvest turtles occurred during February 1959.

On this latter trip, 508 turtles were taken that yielded about 36 000 lb of turtle meat (Anon, 1959c). G. Rowell (in litt. to Qld Dept. of Harbours and Marine, 10 April 1959) provided a summary of the combined summer's turtle harvests by the Whittakers:  'Turtle fishing was commenced in early January, and discontinued during March.  During that period approximately 1200 turtles were taken which produced approximately 80 000 lbs of meat (about 60 to 70 lbs of meat per turtle)'.

As of 10 April 1959, of the original estimated harvest of 80 000 lb of turtle meat, about 58 000 lb remained in Cairns:  23 000 lb of the 25 000 lb received at the Fish Board, Cairns, remained unsold; and 35 000 lb remained in other Cairns cold storage facilities although some of this had been purchased by a Sydney firm (G. Rowell, in litt. to Qld Dept. of Harbours and Marine). The turtle harvest from the Raine Island area did not continue beyond this one season because the Whittaker brothers considered that it was not profitable (N. Whittaker, pers. comm.).

On 18 July 1968 an Order in Council under the Queensland Fisheries Act declared an all year round closed season over all marine turtle species and their eggs throughout all of Queensland.  This marked the end of a 20 year window of opportunity for commercial harvesting of green turtles in the northern Great Barrier Reef."  

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Citation and/or URL

Limpus, C.J., Miller, J.D., Parmenter, C.J. & Limpus, D.J. 2003, The green turtle, Chelonia mydas, population of Raine Island and the northern Great Barrier Reef: 1843-2001. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 49: (1) 349-440

Spatial Coverage

Northern Great Barrier Reef 

Temporal Coverage

1843 - 2001

Update Frequency

Other Information

None