PANDAN, Antique – To the waters of the coastal village of Dionela here, 75 green sea turtle hatchlings were released on Aug. 27.
Barangay residents found 92 turtle eggs along the coast on July 1 and they decided to secure them until the eggs hatch.
Seventy-five eggs successfully hatched on Aug. 26, said Municipal Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council (MFARMC) officer Valentin Pandongan.
Mayor Plaridel Sanchez VI led the releasing a day after. He commended the villagers for protecting the turtle eggs.
The green turtle is one of the largest sea turtles and the only herbivore among the different species.
Green turtles are in fact named for the greenish color of their cartilage and fat, not their shells.
In the Eastern Pacific, a group of green turtles that have darker shells are called black turtles by the local community.
Green turtles, like other sea turtles, undertake lengthy migrations from feeding sites to nesting grounds, normally on sandy beaches. Mating occurs every two to four years and normally takes place in shallow waters close to the shore.
To nest, females leave the sea and choose an area, often on the same beach used by their mothers, to lay their eggs. They dig a pit in the sand with their flippers, fill it with a clutch of 100 to 200 eggs, cover the pit and return to the sea, leaving the eggs to hatch after about two months.
The most dangerous time of a green turtle’s life is when it makes the journey from nest to sea. Multiple predators, including crabs and flocks of gulls, voraciously prey on hatchlings during this short scamper.
Green turtles are found mainly in tropical and subtropical waters. Like other sea turtles, they migrate long distances between feeding grounds and the beaches from where they hatched.
Classified as endangered, green turtles are threatened by overharvesting of their eggs, hunting of adults, being caught in fishing gear and loss of nesting beach sites.
Many countries, including the United States, prohibit the killing of sea turtles and collection of their eggs. However, in some areas, the killing of green turtles for their meat or to supply shells to the wildlife trafficking trade remains a threat to their recovery./PN
