Since February, 838 babies have made their way through the beaches of the island of Koh Samui, Thailand's second largest island.
No tourists? The beaches are repopulated with turtles! It happens to Koh Samui, Thailand's second largest island: here, as the pandemic has emptied resorts of the usual hordes of tourists, nests belonging to the endangered Hawksbill and green turtles have sprung up all over the island. Since February, 838 small ones they have made their way through the sandy beaches of the island and into the sea and there are two nests still to hatch.
Already in May we had witnessed the return of the turtles to Thailand as well as to India, on Odisha's Rushikulya Beach.
Without tourists, leatherback turtles return to nest on deserted beaches: this hasn't happened for at least 20 years
Now, the news of the happy event is the Kosum Kao-Uthai family, who tells The Guardian that they have noticed mysterious footprints in the sand outside their resort on Koh Samui. They remember noticing the same marks left by a nesting sea turtle at least 50 years ago, when there were only forests, coconut farms and no roads.
“Now the island has over 2 million visitors a year. And it's not just beach development that poses a threat to turtles. Other dangers are poaching, pollution and the risks posed by fishing nets ”, they declare.
The increase in nests - 19 so far - has obviously given good hope to environmentalists who have been fighting for years to reduce the threats posed by human beings. "It is really exciting and we hope that the people in Samui will help us protect the turtles in the future - we now have a great opportunity," says Thon Thamrongnawasawat of Kasetsart University in Bangkok.
And indeed a good sign comes from the locals and local businesses, who have mobilized to protect the animals, building bamboo fences around the nests to protect them from animals.
© M Kittipong/Banyan Tree Samui
Female turtles typically nest every two to three years, using their fins to dig a shaped cavity in the sand and lay between 80 and 120 leathery eggs there.
“They look for calm and peaceful areas - explains Thepsuda Loyjiw, a marine biologist who works at the Banyan Tree resort, where a green turtle has laid five nests this year. We try to grow plants, because they normally love trees and shade, ”she says, adding that turtles usually nest at night.
A bet, now, to take the opportunity to preserve these fantastic animals. In Thailand, conservation experts are finding new ways to monitor the species, and in recent months the Phuket Marine Biological Center has tracked down a Hawksbill mother turtle that spawned on Samui in an effort to find out more about how to better protect the species. its path.
“If you want to keep an animal, you need to know its life cycle and its habitat - says Dr. Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong, director of the center. Technologies are being developed to generate more accurate estimates of numbers, as turtles are difficult to count due to their migrations. "
The pandemic has shown that Samui is an important nesting ground for the species and the "break" from mass tourism is a real opportunity to act. We hope that the man knows how to take the opportunity.
Source: The Guardian
Read also:
- Hundreds of turtles of an endangered species have been born on a Brazilian beach, deserted by the coronavirus
- Coronavirus, without tourists and poachers, turtles return en masse to nest undisturbed on Indian coasts
