Sea Turtle Hatchery / Peraliya Sri Lanka
admin 2013年10月15日 21:59
Sea Turtle Hatchery / Peraliya Sri Lanka
During the 2013 Chinese national Holiday one volunteer of Best Friends China and S.O.S. Animal protection visited the Sea Turtle Hatchery based in Peraliya (in the south east coast of Sri Lanka). This visit proof to be a wonderful learning experience on the great work of saving adult turtles from local dangers and also raising baby turtles until they can be released into the wild.
Some injured sea turtles are there recovering from an encounter with a speedboat while others are living there permanently because they have turned handicapped (by losing a paddle-like arm when entangled in a nylon fishing net). When a sea turtle loses an arm then she is not able to swim straight anymore and becomes an easy prey in the wild. Sadly in Sri Lanka some people likes to eat sea turtle meat and eggs (due to the belief that doing so make you stronger), so the people at the Sea Turtle Hatchery also tries to buy turtle eggs from local hunters and put them for incubation in a safe place within their premises. Then, when the baby turtles are strong enough, they are released back into the sea during the night, which is a safe time to do so (during the night there are less predators around, such as birds).
Our volunteer had the chance to talk with the current head of this turtle project. The original organizer of this turtle farm was his father (Mr. B. K. Ariyapala). Then, when his father passed away, his sister Ms. B . K. Gimalu took charge of this wonderful endeavor, but she died (together with most of the family members) in the 2004 tsunami that hit Sri Lanka, which destroyed the turtle farm too. The good news is that, after the shock, trauma, disbelief and mental/physical toll that losing his whole family had on the current manager, he decided to rebuild the sea turtle farm again (making his family legacy alive again).
We wish all the best to the Sea Turtle Hatchery, and extend our congratulations for their great work!
For more information go to: http://www.srilankanturtles.com/