Saving the planet one turtle at a time

Bubbles Dive Centre and Resort - the nicest beach I saw while on the Islands. Its super clean and by keeping the resort behind the tree line the beach is darker at night encouraging turtles to come up to nest

  Not my usual gig I've found myself suddenly in Malaysia doing what I can to improve the presence of sea turtles here. Through Help our Penyu/HOPE (penyu means turtle in Malay) I've ended up on a paradisal beach on the Perhentian Islands. Part working, part relaxation it is just what I needed after 12 months studying.
  Over the past 60 years the Green Turtle which was once abundant in Malaysian waters have suffered an 80% population decrease. Besides doing chores and different projects during the day we take shifts doing Turtle Watch (8-3am)and Poacher Watch (3-sunrise) every night. This involves patroling the beach to check for turtles that have come up to nest and protecting these from poachers who will use the eggs to make some quick cash.
  We were lucky enough on our very first night to see a turtle come up onto the beach, although she didn't stay long enough to nest. Tuesday night a nest hatched and we helped guide 75 turtles down towards the water.The bright lights of the resort confuse them and they don't know which way to go. I think we all considered picking one up and tucking it into our pocket to take home - they are incredibly cute. But there was something really satisfying about seeing them make it to the sea and start swimming. They will eventually find some floating algae or seagrasses to latch onto to feed on. No one really knows what they do for the first years of their life. They don't reach maturity until 15-20 years when they will migrate every year back to the beach that they hatched on to lay their own eggs. one turtle can lay 1-7 times in a single season, laying 90-120eggs in each nest. Yet only 1 in 10 000 of the hatchlings will make it to adulthood.

Hatchlings! Two of the stragglers; I was to busy experiencing to photograph the rush

   There were six other volunteers here my first week, although two have left today. Besides the chores and we've gone to a local village where they have started the Turtles Need Trees club with the local kids in the school to teach them about the importance of preserving the turtle population, hoping to decrease poaching and local threats to turtles. We spent Thursday afternoon finishing a mural there that the volunteers in April started and hanging out with the kids. In between all of this we have plenty of time to read on the beach, snorkel and enjoy the sunshine. Wednesday morning we went on a snorkel tour, although just out front of the resort I've already seen two sharks, a blue-spotted ray, a green turtle, and numerous types of colour fish and corals (which I'm learning to identify as we've gone out to record the numbers and types of fish and coral so they can track this environment).
   Every afternoon I swim out to a pontoon and do my yoga so that I may be able to start teaching when I get home - its been incredibly relaxing and amazing to be away from the hustle and bustle of London. I'm not sure where I'll be next, or what I'll do in the new year when I return to canada. But for now, I'm eating great food, enjoying good company, soaking up the sunshine and reading and writing more than I've had time for lately.