I just came across a disturbing article about turtle watching in Jakarta, Indonesia. Normally, I'd be excited to see new sites and communities encouraging people to learn about and witness the beauty of sea turtles in the wild, but examples like this show just how far responsible turtle watching has to go.
At Thousand Islands National Marine Park, hawksbill hatchlings are kept for tourism and educational purposes. Even though they claim to release them six months or a year later, their claim to protect the turtles from predators is thin. Turtles (like any other animal) have to avoid predators but have evolved to do that from hatching. Trying to head start turtles like this without expertise is not the ideal way to protect turtles. Even the head of the park admits "Actually its better to release the turtles soon after they are hatched".
Not only are some of the turtles kept for education, 10% of them are sent to a nearby resort, which is especially disturbing. The article goes on to promote coral transplanting, where tourists can cut live coral to transplant somewhere else (where is not clear), which I can't imagine helps the natural reefs either.
Our friend Thushan Kapurusinghe of Turtle Conservation Project in Sri Lanka has told us of similar hatcheries there as well. A Sri Lankan operator, Eco Team has a great article on how these hatcheries can be harmful to turtles. If you want to see hatchlings, make sure you are visiting a respected conservation project that releases all of their hatchlings as soon as possible (ideally in the evening) after emerging.
-Brad Nahill
No comments:
Post a Comment