115 newborn turtles released to sea off Cu Lam Cham

Thứ Bảy, 14/07/2018, 10:33
PSNews - 115 turtles that were born on a man-made method at the Bai Bac brooder in Cham Islands (Hoi An city, Quang Nam province), were released to the sea on Thursday. 

The Management Board of the Cu Lao Cham Marine Protection Zone said, the eggs, laid by sea turtles in the Con Dao National Park (Ba Ria – Vung Tau province) were carried to Bai Bac (north beach) of Cu Lao Cham and carefully hatched from June 26.

115 newborn turtles released to sea off Cu Lam Cham.

Experts happily said that that the rate of the successfully hatched eggs in Cu Lao Cham has reached 98%. This is the third time that turtle eggs have been brought from the Con Dao National Park to the Cu Lao Cham Marine Protection Zone for artificial hatches.

The Management Board of the Cu Lao Cham Marine Protection Zone is continuing to monitor the remaining eggs hatched at Bai Bac in order to make an accurate assessment of the quality of the newborn turtles.

According to the plan, in August, the Management Board of the Cu Lao Cham Marine Protection Zone will transport two batches of 500 turtle eggs from Con Dao to the brooder. This success alongside environmental protection practices has shown a greater prospect for the restoration and conservation of sea turtles and biodiversity of the Cu Lao Cham Marine Protection Zone.

By 2020, sea turtles will be expected to return to shore around Cu Lao Cham to nest.

For the in-situ conservation approach, the management board has been encouraging the community, from locals to domestic and foreign tourists, to protect the environment and develop the biodiversity of the Cu Lao Cham Marine Protection Zone. It expects, by 2020, sea turtles will return to shore around Cu Lao Cham to nest.

In the past, there were nine beaches around Cu Lao Cham where sea turtles often came to lay eggs. But today, due to destructive human activities, particularly tourism, only one in Bai Bac remains a suitable habitat for them to nest.

Cu Lao Cham, 20km off the coast of Hoi An City, is home to 1,500ha of tropical forests and 6,700ha of sea featuring a wide range of marine fauna and flora, including many endangered species such as salangane (swallows), the long-tailed monkey and the crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis).

The islands are also home to 1.26sq.km of coral reefs. The islands are the only location in Vietnam effectively promoting the non-use of plastic bags and the 3-R (reduce, reuse and recycle) programmes.

The 3,000 inhabitants of the islands, which include eight islets with vast ecological diversity, hosts about 100,000 tourists annually, of which 10 percent are foreigners.


By Phung Nguyen