Leatherback turtles return to Thailand...
It is true that we should not get carried away by the siren songs, or rather we should say the swans in Venice (a fake news that we have already told you about). And that the organizations in defense of the environment assure that the presence of wild animals in cities is more common than we think (only that with the noise and the rush we usually do not realize it). However, some authoritative voices are beginning to report signs that could relate the absence of tourism with the recovery of the environment by the native flora and fauna.
This is the case of the Phuket Marine Biological Center, which a few days ago reported to the Reuters news agency that on the deserted beaches of Thailand they have recorded the largest number of leatherback nests in 20 years.
Eleven in total are the nests of this rare sea turtle (listed as a vulnerable species, according to the IUCN) located by Thai national park officials since November.
Koh Lipe is the southernmost island in Thailand
“A very good sign” for the country, as explained by Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong, director of the Phuket Center for Marine Biology, who explains that many of their spawning grounds have been destroyed by humans, which is why they had perhaps five years without running into any nest of the also known as leatherback sea turtle.
Are leatherbacks the largest sea turtles in the world and are endangered in Thailand, so the discovery of these nests is an encouraging sign for the survival of the species. They usually lay their eggs in dark and quiet areas, environments that are difficult to find in recent times in a country that lives off tourism on its beaches.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, international flights have been canceled and some of the Thai beaches have been closed, so the absence of tourists in its sandbanks, As conservation experts believe, could have encouraged the turtles to come ashore and lay their eggs back in Thailand. In fact, in March, in a national park in Phanga Nga, they found more than 80 hatchlings of this rare turtle after monitoring the eggs for two months.
Although we must not forget that there is other dangers that lie in wait for this giant marine reptile which inhabits almost all the world's oceans, as the inhabitants of the Thai coastal regions are accustomed to dig into their nests to steal the eggs, no matter how much they are protected by law (their theft or possession is punishable by a fine and up to 15 years in prison).
Hawksbill sea turtle swimming on the seabed in the Maldives