Mayotte is an island in the Indian Ocean with an exceptional natural heritage located between Madagascar and Mozambique. The youngest French department, it hosts a protected marine reserve (on paper) of 68,381 km² with an exceptional biodiversity but in danger, for lack of means and will to control and protect it.
Threatened and protected marine turtles return to the beach of their birth to lay their eggs. They are then easy prey for poachers who wait for them armed with machetes. After cutting off their fins and heads, they open their shells and collect the meat, which sells for up to 60 euros per kilo on the black market. Their eggs, so precious for the next generation of turtles, rot on the sand.