It’s a sweltering night on the western coast of Sri Lanka, and on Mount Lavinia beach there’s an unusual flurry of activity. Several young people in orange hi-vis vests are squatting in a circle, digging in the sand in the semi-darkness.
The team of volunteers is patrolling a popular tourist beach on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, scouting for turtle nesting sites. Finding the nests can involve a bit of detective work.
“We keep searching for [turtle] tracks and then follow the trail,” says Vikasitha Liyanage, one of the volunteers with the Pearl Protectors, a local environmentalist group who patrol between 9.30pm and 2am. “Sometimes we dig holes on the beach to look for the eggs.”
Turtle eggs have long been poached as a food source by coastal communities, but more recently it is human activity of another kind that has proved a greater threat. As the city has sprawled, especially during the past decade, restaurants and other tourist amenities have mushroomed along most parts of the country’s western coast, bringing in more people.
Along with people come parties, booming music, and much plastic and chemical waste. All of which disrupts turtle nesting during the breeding season, running from November to April.
Upul Priyantha Kumara, a restaurant manager, says he has seen for himself the problem of people crowding the turtles as they come to the beach. “One time, when a turtle arrived to lay eggs, some children who were having a birthday party tried to use flashlights and take pictures. The turtle returned to the sea without laying,” he says.
Aware that life for the turtles was becoming more difficult, Muditha Katuwawala expanded the activities of the Pearl Protectors, which he coordinates, to include regular patrols. Working with the coastguard, the volunteers help to find eggs laid in risky areas and remove them to a safe nesting place on the beach until they hatch.
Once they hatch the juveniles are given safe passage by night-time patrols. (The turtles, even if they have hatched in the daytime, will usually wait until it is cooler before emerging from the sand so it’s more often after dark when they head for the sea.)
-
Muditha Katuwawala, left, coordinator of the Pearl Protectors, and a volunteer, Rose Fernando, at a turtle nesting site on Mount Lavinia beach in Colombo
Not everyone is happy about what the group is doing – and they have to be aware of the dangers.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Travel | The Guardian…