Ending the year with Turtles in Thailand...

After finding reports that Leatherback Turtles had nested and laid eggs just south of our Wicked Diving Khao Lak shop, a few of our divemaster trainees loaded up the truck and headed down to investigate.


While Turtle nesting may or may not be important in other location - here in Thailand the population of Leatherback (and other species too) have been decimated to the point of near extinction due to a variety of reasons. As these are pelagic species, they can often be caught as "bycatch" in the huge fleets of fishing fleets - and are too large to effectively be saved by the recent introduction of Turtle Extruder devices with an estimated 1500 mature females caught worldwide...which is approx. 8% of the total population. In addition to this Leatherback's also suffer greatly from the ingestion of plastic bags, balloons and floating waste that resemble the jellyfish that make a huge part of their diet. As this plastic are not digested - they actually prevent absorption of nutrients. 


There have been NO nestings of Leatherbacks in Thailand for at least three years. So this is huge news for species that once numbered in the tens of thousands here!


On our way to visit this nest, we stopped off at the Thai Muang Coastal Fisheries turtle conservation center. There they rehabilitate injured and sick turtles of all ages and maturity levels as well as hatch and raise Green and Hawksbills turtles. They are also unique in that they raise and release several other reef species including Giant clams.


Yesterday they had quite a few adult Turtles in rehab...with one enclosure holding 5 large adult Olive Ridley Turtles which are very uncommon in Thai waters.

After quite a bit of time spent communicating with the turtles big and small...we headed into the National Park to see the nests!



The nests are not common knowledge and have been left int heir natural state - though they are now fenced in and observed so no eggs are taken for traditional recipes.



The nests are fenced off, and documented. They are marked with placards noting the date of nesting and the expected hatching date (about 60 days after eggs are laid). In this case the eggs are expected to hatch about February 12th.

We are in contact with the National Park about supporting the hatching and making sure none are taken by poachers or collectors. Wait for more news about that....


Wicked Diving - we do things differently :)



-Khao Lak Diving