Every March, the sleepy town of Thai Muang, Thailand, hosts the Turtle Festival. On the fringes of a national park, fair-like grounds spring up, packed with vendors, food and a performance stage. The festival raises awareness of the declining number of egg-laying turtles coming to these local beaches. The nearby Fisheries Department runs a turtle conservation center and hatchery. Each season they collect the eggs laid by the turtles that do come, incubate them, and raise them until they are 60 days old, when they are released back to the sea.
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woxIUMZgnm0″]
All told, over 80 young turtles were released into the Andaman Sea. It was pure joy.
Sweet! Wasn’t this first on Karen’s must-do list? Pure joy indeed.
Hiya Jane. You’re right: we (especially Karen) would like to volunteer with turtles somehow- counting eggs or protecting nests or something. This was the next best thing. If we’d known how it worked, we could have entered the lottery to release one ourselves.
This is so completely cool. Not sure what I loved most – the joy of the turtles entering the sea or the joy in the faces of the people helping to release them. Once again, I traveled a little bit today. Thanks!
Oh, wasn’t it fun? Glad you liked it so much. Turtles are one of my favorite animals.