Kuta Beach has become a new icon of sea turtle conservation with the launch of a conservation center, which is expected to help prevent the endangered Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) species from going extinct.
Fun with turtles: Children play near a giant statue of a turtle near Kuta Beach on Saturday. A turtle egg hatchery facility was unveiled recently as part of a drive to protect the population of sea turtles. JP/Stanny Angga
The Kuta Beach Sea Turtle Conservation site launched on Saturday consists of a hatchery — built in a shape of a giant turtle — that will be able to accommodate 10,000 eggs, and an information center highlighting the history of sea turtles and the species’ future.
At the launch, tourists helped release 400 baby turtles at the beach.
This facility is the second community-driven turtle conservation center on the island. The first was established by the people of Serangan, an island once known as Turtle Island. With assistance provided by WWF Indonesia, the people of Serangan attempted to shed the island’s infamous image as the country’s largest port for the illegal trade in sea turtles.
The turtle conservation efforts in Kuta have been conducted since 2002 by the beach’s security force and ProFauna Indonesia, with assistance from several private companies.
The groups worked to protect sea turtles that came there for laying eggs. To protect them from tides and human intervention, volunteers initially relocated the eggs to a hatchery.
The species has been coming to Kuta Beach for centuries to lay their eggs. As the beach developed into a key tourist hub, sea turtle populations have declined over the past seven years.
With high traffic on the beach, the conservation team said, they decided that upon finding nesting sites, the eggs should be relocated to a hatchery to improve hatchlings’ chances of survival.
Worldwide, six of seven species of sea turtles are threatened or endangered largely because of humans.
They also face danger from accidental capture, poaching and the loss of nesting sites due to coastal development and beach pollution.
“The extinction of these extraordinary animals would truly be a loss. It’s estimated that only one out of 1,000 hatchlings will survive to adulthood. With the ongoing hunt of turtles, they need to be protect by us,” I Wayan Wiradnyana from ProFauna Indonesia said.
“That’s why we’re working together to save this creature by providing a safe place for them to lay their eggs and placing baby turtles back into their natural habitat.”
The beach’s security chief, I Gusti Ngurah Tresna, said that from 2002 to 2009, more than 12,000 baby turtles were released at the beach.
“We expect to release more than 10,000 turtles this year,” he said.
So far this year, conservationists have released 6,400 turtles on the beach and collected more than 4,500 eggs. The conservation team also relocated 44 nests to the hatchery. The number of eggs hatched in the area has increased during the last two years, from 1,947 in 2008 to 4,054 in 2009.
The species’ nesting season runs from March to September, and the hatching season begins from May through to October. When eggs hatch at the end of their two-month incubation period, the baby turtles return to the ocean the same day.
Kuta customary village head I Gusti Ketut Sudira said the new conservation center would change the public perception that Balinese people opposed turtle conservation since they often killed turtles for use in religious ceremonies.
“People used to think that we were turtle killers. In fact, we use turtles sustainably, we don’t exploit the species, and we fully support the conservation efforts,” he said.
