A sea turtle hatched in Cu Lao Cham is released to the sea. (Photo: quangnam.gov.vn) Quang Nam (VNA) – A marine project is underway in the centralprovince of Quang Nam to save sea turtles as part of a local effort to protectthe biodiversity in Cu Lao Cham (Cham Island) Marine Protected Area (MPA).
Following the success of the project to restore coral reefs in Cu LaoCham’s waters with support from Mangroves for the Future (MFF), Hoi An city and QuangNam are working to turn Cu Lao Cham into a place for sea turtle conservation.
The project aims to evaluate the ecological environment of the coastalareas in the Cu Lao Cham MPA where sea turtles used to nest and natural andhuman impacts on these areas, said Le Vinh Thuan, deputy director of the Cu LaoCham MPA management board.
The management board has been deploying various conservation methodsfor this project, Thuan noted, adding that based on findings, the managementboard will come up with scientific solutions to improve the health of the beachenvironment, making a suitable habitat for sea turtles to lay eggs.
Hundreds of eggs laid by sea turtles in Con Dao National Park werecarried to Bai Bac (north beach) of Cu Lao Cham where they hatched in the earlySeptember, 2017. This success alongside improved environmental protectionpractices have brought greater prospects for the restoration and conservationof sea turtles and biodiversity of the Cu Lao Cham MPA.
Given sand temperature ranging from 30-45 degrees Celsius and humidityat about 80 percent, the experts’ special care provided a hatching success rateof 95 percent.
Last year, more than 860 baby turtles were born from 900 eggs using theex-situ conservation method, and all were later released to the sea. It isexpected that some extra 900 eggs will be hatched in June and August this year.
For the in-situ conservation approach, the management board has been encouragingthe community, from locals to domestic and foreign tourists, to protect theenvironment and develop the biodiversity of the Cu Lao Cham MPA, said biologistNguyen Van Vu. It expects, by 2020, sea turtles will return to shore around CuLao Cham to nest.
According to Vu, in the past, there were nine beaches around Cu LaoCham where sea turtles often came to lay eggs. But today, due to destructive humanactivities, particularly tourism, only one in Bai Bac remains a suitablehabitat for them to nest.
Cu Lao Cham, 20km off the coast of Hoi An City, is home to 1,500haof tropical forests and 6,700ha of sea featuring a wide range of marine faunaand flora, including many endangered species such as salangane (swallows), thelong-tailed monkey and the crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis).
The islands are also home to 1.26sq.km of coral reefs. The islandsare the only location in Vietnam effectively promoting the non-use of plasticbags and the 3-R (reduce, reuse and recycle) programmes.
The 3,000 inhabitants of the islands, which include eight isletswith vast ecological diversity, hosts about 100,000 tourists annually, of which10 percent are foreigners.-VNA
VNA
