Monday, July 6, 2009

Visitors to Nusa Lembongan doing their bit to save sea turtles

There are few people out there who would not be aware of the threats posed to the various species of marine turtle which grace our oceans in different corners of the world. I am very pleased to report that Nusa Lembongan is participating in a program to help address these threats.

Sunset Beach, Nusa Lembongan - turtle release locationSunset Beach in Nusa Lembongan - a location for releasing baby turtles to the Indian Ocean

Bail Hai Cruises is running an adopt a turtle cruise programme whereby visitors release a baby Olive Ridley Turtle to the ocean on the Nusa Lembongan. These turtles have been hatched in a supervised facility in neighbouring Bali from eggs collected from beaches in west Bali where scavenging from dogs and other disturbance provide very real threat. All revenue generated from the release programme goes towards:

two baby turtles released on Nusa Lembongani. incentivising local villagers in Bali to report incidents of laying turtles so that the eggs can be taken away from areas of danger into the supervised hatchery



ii. education of schoolchildren in Bali about the importance of marine conservation and the role of turtles in that

iii. the administration and improvement of the hatchery

iv. the collection of data for research into turtle populations

This weekend I was lucky enough to witness the release of 15 or so baby turtles on my very favourite Sunset Beach on Nusa Lembongan. Each of the tiny youngsters made it successfully to the ocean and it was great to see the interest from all the participating visitors and the children in particular.

Clearly this is a very worthy programme and one which we would urge all visitors to island to participate in. For just US$10 you can adopt and release a baby turtle. There may be other participants in the scheme but I can certainly recommend Bali Hai Cruises from everything I witnessed this weekend. According to the supervisor they are running multiple release cruises at the moment and more details are available on the Bali Hai Cruises website.

baby turtle released on Nusa Lembongan

11 comments:

  1. Its really nice to read articles like this about people who do care enough for the environment and conservation to run this wonderful Programme!

    Well Done Bali Hai Cruises. Thank you Sunset for posting this. Great pictures too!

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  2. Indeed a very good initiative. We need more of these to increase the awareness amongst people of our eco-system and the need for conservation of other species on the planet.

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  3. I really admire your initiative. In our selfish and globalized world, it's very reassuring to see people who care about the environment and animals.

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  4. I have never seen a black turtle like that one. Always have been your green/brown turtles around here. Now I feel guilty thinking about the one I found last year in my yard that my dog got a hold of.

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  5. Thanks for the positive comments everyone. Much appreciated.

    Beth... these are very young Green Turtles. They assume a more "normal" colur as they nature.

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  6. Lucky YOU :) !! TO WITNESS such a thing . but i have a question CAN THOSE Black turtles found elsewhere? i never saw them before....
    thank you for educating us

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  7. Each of the tiny youngsters made it successfully to the ocean and it was great to see the interest from all the participating visitors and the children in particular.
    thanks
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  8. Love the black turtle, never saw one like that before

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  9. After a bit research I have discovered that the tutles released on this day were in fact not Green Turtles as I was orignally informed but Olive Ridley Turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea).

    I have corrected the title and body of the article.

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  10. Also I am pleased to report that this story made it to the national press:

    http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/07/16/baby-sea-turtles-head-a-big-adventure.html

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  11. nice and beautiful photos; i liked very much; best reguards from BARCELONA my friend!

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