The Cayman Islands Turtle Farm continues to lose money. This time it was approx. $6M in the red.

Deputy Premier Moses Kirkconnell said approx. two thirds of that figure – $4.5M – was due to repayment of a loan. The rest was to cover operating losses.

The loan should be settled in 2019 so we will expect to have more losses reported from this tourist attraction.

One could perhaps say there are unknown monies that could be attributable to the Turtle Farm, or should I say Turtle CENTRE as it is now called, by visitors who have come for a vacation just because of the turtle attraction….

An accountant would never put a figure against that one. It has to be black or white and that either stays black or ends up red.

So what is the sunshine amidst the gloom?

Overall revenues from admissions, retail, food and drink, and turtle meat sales went up by 15 percent during the 2015/16 year. Turtle meat sales increased by 29% when one compares it to the 2014/15 year.

And our Deputy Premier was quick to point out that there is a big demand for turtle meat. If the farm/centre did not exist there would be “unsustainable pressure to take turtles from the wild in our local population”.

If that was the case an additional $1M in additional policing just to stop this happening would seem to be chunk change if the Centre was to be closed down!

According to the Tourist Board our Turtle Centre is the Cayman Islands’ most popular land-based tourist attraction.

That sounds good if one doesn’t ask what it is compared with? Two attractions out East?

If we eat more turtle from the Centre and turn deaf ears to the rantings from the World Animal Protection (the chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows, bulls, etc. are somewhat exempt from their Protection) we may have some real good news after 2019.

We might…

Or will the gloom be darker?

Now that is the question.

You might just as well ask who’s going to win the election?