In February 2009 I was an invited speaker at the Dhamra Port Consultative Technical Workshop in Bhubaneswar, Orissa State, at the behest of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. My topic was how to minimize sea turtle and dredging interactions during the ongoing Dhamra Port construction project in the Dhamra River estuary, on the Bay of Bengal. What puzzled me most were comments made by a few well-meaning attendees to the conference. Ostensibly in the spirit of protecting Orissa