Baby turtles move toward the ocean from their nests on a beach at the Cham Islands. As many as 250 turtle eggs were moved from southern Con Dao Island to the Cham Islands as part of a sea turtle conservation programme.(Photo: VNA) Quang Nam (VNS/VNA) - Baby turtles (Cheloniidae) hatched fromeggs that had been moved to a beach in the Cham Islands' MarineProtected Area (MPA) were released into the ocean last weekend by theMPA's management board.
Two weeks ago, as many as250 eggs were moved to the Cham Islands from Con Dao Island NationalPark, located in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province 1,000 kilometres away.
Nguyen Van Vu, MPA's vicedirector, said the turtle eggs had been laid by mothers in nests at the ConDao park 40 days before they were moved to the Cham Islands.
The eggs were placedin artificial nests on pristine beaches, and after 16 days in strictprotection and warm sand, more than 90 percent of the eggs hatchedsuccessfully.
As part of a turtleconservation programme for the 2017-19 period, another batch of 250 turtleeggs, the last of this year, will be delivered to the Cham Islandsthis summer, Vu said.
According to MPA, more than1,600 turtle eggs have been moved to the Cham Islands since 2017 forhatching. Of these, 1,200 baby turtles have been released to the sea.
The green sea turtlespecies is listed as one of five endangered ones in Vietnam’s Red Book.
Turtle researcher Le Xuan Aifrom MPA said that only one out of 1,000 baby turtles can survive aftergrowing from hatched eggs.
Baby turtles often returnto the beach where they were born to lay eggs when they reach maturity,according to Ai.
Authorities are planning tobuild a turtle conservation area on an area of 40sq.km of beachand water on Bac beach in the Cham Islands.
Since 2017, at least 20turtles have been captured by fishing nets in waters off the Islands, butonly nine were healthy enough to return to their natural habitat.Some turtles died because they were trapped in nets for a longperiod.
A World Biosphere Reserve,the Cham Islands banned plastic bag usage among localresidents and tourists in 2011. It was the first site in Vietnam to do so.
The islands, with apopulation of 3,000, are a popular site for ecotours. They are locatednear the UNESCO-recognised Hoi An ancient town.-VNS/VNA
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