Volunteers are helping save baby sea turtles as the endangered species’ favourite nesting spots come under pressure from development, poaching and tourists
, and on Mount Lavinia beach there’s an unusual flurry of activity. Several young people in orange hi-vis vests are squatting in a circle, digging in the sand in the semi-darkness.
Turtle eggs have long been poached as a food source by coastal communities, but more recently it is human activity of another kind that has proved a greater threat. As the city has sprawled, especially during the past decade, restaurants and other tourist amenities have mushroomed along most parts of the country’s western coast, bringing in more people.
Aware that life for the turtles was becoming more difficult, Muditha Katuwawala expanded the activities of the Pearl Protectors, which he coordinates, to include regular patrols. “Last year, we met a lot of agitated villagers with dogs,” says Rose Fernando, another volunteer. “One person even came with a stick or something, trying to hit us.”Nevertheless, a significant threat to the reptiles comes from the poachers because once they find a nest, all the eggs are usually taken.“Certain restaurants and hotels sell these eggs to the foreigners as an exotic food, at a premium price,” Katuwawala says. “So turtle eggs now have commercial demand.
About 90% of the villagers in the area now support the turtle conservation efforts after these awareness sessions, says Amith Nilanga, who fishes and works as a diving instructor nearby. “Others are still involved in poaching eggs to sell,” he says. “Turtle eggs are believed to be highly nutritious.” He remembers his uncles eating them raw., led by Thushan Kapurusinghe, has gone a step further by recruiting poachers to protect nests, providing an alternative income.
Coming into contact with humans can transfer germs to the turtles, and being released into the ocean in small numbers, during daylight, reduces the juveniles’ chances of survival.Sea turtles in one of the illegal turtle hatcheries in a suburb of Colombo, where tourists are encouraged to buy baby turtles hatched from poached eggs
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