When a man loves a turtle or The Turtle Hatchery in Bentota, Sri Lanka

August 30, 2010

When a man loves a turtle
Can't keep his mind on nothing else
He'd give up all his comfort
Sleep out on the beach
If she said that's the way it ought to be

Since our bodies have recovered from the beating of the Katelios workout regimen Jean and I have developed a nostalgia for the six weeks we spent volunteering with the sea turtle conservation group on the Greek island of Kefalonia. Through intensive study of turtles, talking to tourists about turtles, daily snorkeling forays to see turtles, and the rare nocturnal grappling session these gentle knights-errant of the sea have found a warm place in my heart. So, went I saw a turtle hatchery on my map mere millimeters from Beruwela I couldn't help but drag the wedding party there one afternoon.

With its sandy beaches and warm climate the Sri Lanka coast is a hotbed of sea turtle activity. As the same suggests the Sea Turtle Protection Project in Bentota, Sri Lanka is a conservation group dedicated to the preservation of endangered sea turtles much like the program we volunteered with in Greece.

However, the Bentota hatchery is a significantly different operation. The Katelios Group takes a hands off, preventive approach to protecting sea turtles investing their efforts in public awareness and gathering data on the turtles in their natural environment. The Bentota project takes more aggressive conservation measures.

On Kefalonia there is little predation of nests and hatchlings. In Sri Lanka turtles have to contend with gulls, dogs, rodents and man. A turtle egg fetches 8-9 rupees at the market. Thus the hatchery pays 11 rupees ($0.10) an egg. Fishermen bring in most eggs. After observing a female nest on the beach they'll dig up the eggs and bring them to the hatchery to claim their bounty. The loggerhead sea turtle lays around 100 eggs. Do the math and that's quite a windfall in a country where the average income is less than $2000 a year.

At the hatchery they have what appear to be really large sand boxes. The sand boxes are surrounded by chain link fence and covered with netting. After eggs are procured, nests are dug in the sand,  and the eggs are buried again. Then the spot is marked with the date. If everything works out you should have a horde of baby turtles in 50 – 70 days.

I tried to ask our tour guide what percentage of the eggs hatch. A typical clutch 80% of the eggs will produce a turtle that makes it to the surface. The guide didn't seem to understand my question or didn't know. I was curious because relocation of a sea turtle nest is time sensitive endeavor. About 12 hours after an egg is laid the embryo attaches to egg wall. Changing the orientation after this time is detrimental to the embryo's development. Hopefully, the fishermen are prompt.

The program does have successes. A clutch hatched yesterday actually. They hold on to a hatchlings for a couple of days before releasing them into the sea. Our guide took us over to a rectangular cement pool full of little baby sea turtles splashing around. Even though there were signs posted everywhere saying, “DO NOT TOUCH THE TURTLES” our guide seemed to have no qualms about scooping up the little wriggling critters and dropping them into peoples' outstretched hands. I have to admit that one of those outstretched hands was mine.

Most of the hatchlings are released after 48 hours to make their way in the Indian Ocean. The hatchery holds on to a handful for research. These turtles are kept in bigger cement pools sprinkled throughout the hatchery. The guide showed us a five year old green turtle about as big around as a steering wheel. They also had Hawksbill turtles and Loggerheads all between five and ten years old. I was beside myself. I hadn't really seen that many turtles while volunteering with the Katelios group. In eight nights of patrolling the beach I'd come across two. The others I chanced upon during our daily snorkeling excursions. But these turtles were right there. I could reach out and touch them if wanted to (which I did but I restrained myself). I remembered how I could go out snorkeling every evening for days and not see a thing. This felt like cheating. 

Then I recalled the rush I'd had one day when I'd been out snorkeling for an hour and half and had gotten pretty far out. I turned to head back to shore and came face to face with this big male loggerhead. He was huge. Probably had twenty kilos on me. We stared at each other for a while out in the blue depths of the Aegean. I could probably have reached out and touched him if I wanted to. Looking at those imposing jaws and claws on  his flippers I really didn't want to at the moment. Yes, this might be cheating but it definitely wasn't as cool.

The Bentota Hatchery is also home to some turtles that wouldn't survived in the wild. A couple of maimed souls have concrete chalets on the grounds. One poor guy is missing two flippers. The most famous of the hatchery's residents is an albino green turtle. He was the last stop of the tour before the gift shop.

I was glad to get a glimpse into the workings of another conservation group. At first I was a little taken aback by some of their practices e.g. essentially paying people to dig up turtle nests. As with most things in life conservation requires compromise and creative adaptation. Through catastrophes* and in a country rife with more visible problems the staff at the Bentota Turtle Hatchery do admirable work.  

Then there was the episode where the guide put a hatchling into the hands of a four year old who when realizing the creature was wet promptly chunked the hatchling back in the pool. That image still makes me cringe. Oh well. Nothing is perfect. I guess if sea turtles have been around for 100 million years they can handle the occasional 4 year old.


* The Bentota Turtle Hatchery was completely wiped out by a tsunami in 2004