Kategorie: News
June 16 is World Sea Turtle Day!
They have survived ice ages, seaquakes and other natural disasters. The "blueprint" of these unique reptiles has been maintained to this day, except for a few modifications. Sea turtles have successfully nested on the beaches of the world's oceans for millions of years.
Not only are sea turtles beautiful and charismatic, they also perform important functions in marine ecosystems and nesting beaches.
Today, unfortunately, these wonderful, robust creatures are threatened with extinction. And that, most likely all due to humans. World Sea Turtle Day was proclaimed to honor their importance and to bring the urgent need for their comprehensive and sustainable protection into the public eye on a regular basis.
Start of the nesting season on Boa Vista
After two turtles nested unscheduled on Boa Vista in the spring, the nesting season has officially begun. Camps on the beaches of Boa Esperança, Canto, Curral Velho and Lacacão were set up last week to protect the nesting creatures, despite the lack of help from most of the international volunteers.
On the new project island Selaut Besar in the Indonesian province of Aceh off West Sumatra, the focus is also on the protection and research of sea turtles. In this region, especially around the endangered leatherback turtles.
Surprisingly, a ranger discovered a nest of the highly endangered hawksbill turtle in April. This revealed that four of the existing seven sea turtle species nest on the small, remote island: the hawksbill turtle, the green sea turtle, the olive ridley turtle and, of course, the impressive leatherback turtle.
The Turtle Foundation funds its projects to protect these wonderful animals through donations. You can help save these adorable sea creatures from extinction.
Here you can contribute with a donation, to the preservation of these wonderful sea creatures:
www.turtle-foundation.org/