RELEASING BABY TURTLES IN UNAWATUNA
Visit the Sea Turtle Conservation Project on Koggala Beach close to Dalawella. They work with the Sri Lankan government to save and preserve sea turtles. The baby turtles were rescued when they were eggs and hatched in a safe environment.
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The organisation saves both adult turtles and turtle eggs. After the turtles hatch, they swim around for about 5 days to make them stronger before they are released. Then the turtles are released on the beach where they walk towards the water by themselves so they imprint on that particular beach.
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If you pick up a baby turtle in nature, you risk putting your scent on it so its mother won’t recognize it. These baby turtles are orphans, and the primary objective of this organisation is to save the sea turtles because they are endangered.
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This place is by no means perfect, but they do what they can with what they’ve got, and they try to educate the public to stop the locals from eating the turtle eggs, and from what we understood they also buy the eggs back from them.
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The signs clearly said that we were not allowed to touch the turtles (except from the ones we released), which is as it should be.
And we would definitely recommend that you do NOT pick up the turtles.
