Rameswaram: The Mandapam Forest range personnel have collected 145 sea turtle eggs on Tuesday, the fourth collection this season since December 13, taking the total number of eggs so far collected to 515.
A team of sea turtle watchers was taking a stroll along the Danushkodi seashore in the early hours, surveying for turtle tracks when it found a nest full of eggs. Supervised by Forest Range Officer S. Sathish, the watchers safely collected the eggs and shifted them to the hatchery at Muhuntharayar Chathiram.
“This was the fourth collection in the range and the collection of eggs will go on till the end of April,” Mr. Sathish told The Hindu . After collecting 98 eggs in the maiden collection this season, the watchers have collected 143 eggs on December 24 and 149 on December 29, he said.
The first batch of hatchlings from eggs collected on December 13 is expected to be released into the sea by the end of this month, he added. The watchers have not come across disturbances to the turtles by stray dogs and other predators, he said. The local fishermen were also very cooperative, he added.
After the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park launched an awareness campaign by staging folklore programmes in the fishing hamlets, involving ‘Arumbugal Trust’, the Tirunelveli based non-governmental organisation, there has been increased awareness among the fisher folk, Mr. Sathish said.
Thanks to the programme, fishermen in Danushkodi had released three sea turtles back into the sea after they were caught in their fishing nets on December 24, he said adding “this is a good sign’.
As advised by Deepak S Bilgi, Warden, Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park, they propose to distribute about 5,000 pamphlets to sensitise the fishing community on conservation of sea turtles and biodiversity, he added.
