Turtle Release

One of the Pirates week events is the annual turtle release.
The Cayman Islands were originally named Las Tortugas (Spanish for Turtles) by Christopher Columbus due to the millions of turtles that inhabited the surrounding waters.  In the 1600 and 1700's the Cayman Islands became a provisioning stop for vessels sailing the Caribbean because of an abundance of green sea turtles, which could be caught and kept alive on board as a source of fresh meat.  Turtles thus became a local source of food and income.  The numbers of turtles have decreased significantly over the years. 
The turtle farm has a number of projects and breeds hundreds of turtles, some which are released into the wild and have been tracked and returned to lay their eggs along Seven Mile Beach, others are bred to be eaten and Turtle stew is a common local Caymanian dish.