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Here's me with a rather large and very heavy sea turtle. The nice man on the right gave us a good little tour and explanation of the work they do at the sanctuary - mostly carried out by volunteers. He works so hard that he works up quite a sweat which he can be seen here wiping off his upper lip even though it does look a bit like he's blowing his nose on his T shirt! Sea Turtles are an endangered species the world over. In Sri Lanka the naughty "beach boys" apparently dig up the newly laid turtle eggs and eat them as a delicacy. In order to discourage this sort of heinous behaviour, the sanctuary pays 2 rupees for each egg brought to there. The eggs are then reburied in sand pits. After 24 hours they hatch and are transferred to water tanks. A couple of days later when they're about 2-3 inches long they are released into the sea. A lucky 20 percent manage to escape predators and survive into adulthood, hopefully enjoying a life span of up to 100 years or was it 150 or even 300 anyway a very very long time (sorry my attention lapsed slightly towards the end). |
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