A sea turtle on Con Dao Island. (Photo: VNA)
Ba Ria-Vung Tau (VNS/VNA) - Lam DucDu, a forest ranger on Con Dao Island in the southern province of Ba Ria Vung Tau,wakes up at midnight, picks up his flashlight and goes down to the beach tocollect turtle eggs.
Under a pineapple bush, a pregnant turtle is lyingin a 40cm-deep hole, dug by herself, ready to lay her eggs.
Pregnant turtles can lay about 100 eggs in twohours, and she will dig 3-7 nests during the breeding season, which fallsbetween July and September.
As usual, Du waits until the turtle finisheslaying her eggs, then takes them to a facility equipped with incubators.
Baby turtles hatch after 45-60 days, but only 1 ina 1,000 survive through to adulthood.
Du is a forest ranger whose job is to incubatingturtle eggs under a programme to conserve sea turtles in Con Dao National Park.
Statistics from the park show that about 750,000baby turtles have been released into the sea in the past five years.
Tran Dinh Hue, deputy head of the national park,said the park actually started protecting sea turtles in 1991. The park had installed chips to track 3,000 femaleturtles so far, and around 500 females return to the island to lay eggs eachyear, he said.
Hue said public awareness of turtle protection hadalso risen over the years with positive results, and they had cooperated withauthorities to ensure residents did not illegally trade, transport or store seaturtles and their products in the province.
Last year, the provincial People’s Committeeissued a message directing authorities to ensure safety in areas where seaturtles lay their eggs in the national park.
Con Dao Island is now believed to be the largestnesting site for sea turtles in the country.
Incomplete data from the Education for Nature — Vietnam (ENV)released in late July said that Vietnam was home to leatherbackturtles (Dermochelys coriacea), the olive ridley seaturtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelysimbricate), loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) and greenturtles (Chelonia mydas), which were all in danger due to illegallyhunting.
The centre said hawksbill turtles were the mostseverely depleted species because 80 percent of the population had beenillegally poached for their shells, and green sea turtles face a similarsituation. –VNS/VNA
