Chinese volunteers help save tens of thousands of sea turtles in Sri Lanka
Wu Tianqi, a Chinese university student, originally planned to come to Sri Lanka this year as a tourist just to admire the country’s natural beauty, but soon found that it would be more meaningful to be a volunteer for a local turtle conservation project.
“In this way, I could learn more about the country and also serve the cause of turtle conservation,” she told Xinhua. “This is the kind of experience I would never have as a sightseeing tourist,” she said.
Wu then headed for the Turtle Conservation Center in the southern town of Balapitiya, 90 km south of capital Colombo. Thousands of Chinese volunteers have worked here, having helped save 18,000 sea turtles in past years.
Sri Lanka’s long coastline is a natural gathering place for sea turtles. But today, the number of the marine “living fossils” is dramatically decreasing.
The survival rate among baby turtles is extremely low. Only one turtle could be successfully hatched among 1,000 turtle eggs.
In recent years, the survival of turtles has become more and more difficult. Smuggling, entanglement in fishing nets, and the mushrooming of beach resorts all threaten the newly-hatched turtles.
Apart from the low survival rate, the sex ratio of the newborn sea turtle in Sri Lanka is very unbalanced.
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Photo from Bernard Spragg. NZ.
