Turtle Power

"Everything living has a soul".
AFRICAN ORAL TRADITION


The Maluane Conservation Communities Programme, established in 1998, supports the most advanced turtle conservation programme in East Africa. On Vamizi Island there are no predators and so the baby turtles are allowed to hatch naturally.

We walked along the beach to the nest. The sun was low and orange in the sky and the moon was full and rising opposite.

Abu, the Malawian conservationist, had been watching this particular nest for a while and hoping that it would be ready for our visit. The nesting season runs from between January to July. It was April and so the timing was perfect.


Hatchlings ready to emerge wait just beneath the sand surface until conditions become cool but in this case, for our benefit, the team of experts were giving the newborns a helping hand by digging them out. A rich, stale smell rose from the nest as they dug.


Sea turtle hatchlings have an inbuilt tendency to move in the brightest direction. More often than not, this is towards a sparkling sea as the light of the moon reflects off the water. The guys carefully took each turtle from the nest and handed them to us to place on the sand. These tiny little creatures then started off on their journey seaward.


I could see that the 20 m journey from the back of the beach to the lapping waves was a long and arduous one. The little crests in the sand that I just scuffed my toes over were like mini mountains for these guys! It's all about perspective.




Only 1 out of 1,000 turtles survive. They are only really safe after they are at least 40cm in size as every fish that has a mouth bigger than the little turtles can eat them. Even then there is the threat of poaching (most of the Vamizi population live below the poverty line and turtles are valuable for their shell), sometimes the turtles get accidentally caught in the fishing nets or the ingestion of plastic bags is not uncommon.

In an attempt to protect the turtles, a 4 dollar reward is offered to every fisherman who returns a turtle from their nets to the conservation project. In 2006, 4 rewards were given. In 2008 that number went up to 80 and so the awareness grows....