Olive Ridleys nesting to promote beach tourism at Visakhapatnam

VISAKHAPATNAM:  As an added beauty to the Vizag beach, nestling of Olive Ridley turtles is being promoted at the hatcheries set up on the coastal stretch from Coastal Battery to Bheemunipatnam in the port city. Every year, turtles come to the coast for laying eggs and the hatchlings will be released into the sea. So far, around 4,500 hatchlings were released into the sea and the forest officials expect their number to increase by May. Members of the Visakha Society for Protection and Care for Animals (VSPCA), which works along with the Forest officials, are holding talks with the government for beach conservation. 

“For Olive Ridley turtles to hatch, sand surface should not be made hard in the name of smart city development. This would stop turtles from coming to the city coast,” said Pradeep Kumar Nath, founder of the VSPCA. With around 624 nests in the hatcheries, a total of 67,388 eggs were collected by the volunteers of the VSPCA who protect the hatcheries. 

Among these, 4,500 hatchlings were released into the sea from January till date. 
“The number of hatchlings are good this year too and we are expecting 800  nests by May-end, which is 20 per cent more than last year. There is still a lot more to be done to conserve the turtles,” said Pradeep. 
They say that there are three factors that affect the turtles -- non-implementation of turtle excluders for the fishing nets, pollution and protection of beach habitat. Once the habitat is disturbed, it is lost forever. Lack of turtle excluder device (TED), a specialised device that allows a captured sea turtle to escape when caught in a fishing net, is also posing a grave threat to turtles.