Mass nesting of turtles starts at Gahirmatha

KENDRAPARA: Much to the delight of turtle lovers and researchers, the mass nesting of olive ridley sea turtles started at the tranquil beach of Gahirmatha marine sanctuary on Wednesday evening.

The sanctuary is the world’s  largest rookery of sea turtles, Nearly 80,000 sea turtles came ashore for mass nesting at Nasi-1 and Nasi-2  islands of the sanctuary for ‘arribada’, a Spanish term for mass-nesting.
In 2018, a record  number of 6,64,549  olive ridley turtles had laid eggs between March 8 and March 12 on the two islands breaking the nesting record of the last 16  years, said forest range officer of the marine sanctuary, Arabinda Mishra.

The  turtles, which had already congregated near Gahirmatha beach, came ashore for nesting in groups of nearly 5,000 to 10,000 each. Nasi-1 and Nasi-2 are two tiny islands spread over an area of only 6 km. The small strip of the islands is  proper nesting ground for the turtles since they are free of predators and human habitations.The turtles began nesting at around 6.30 pm. The ‘arribada’ would continue for a week, the forest officer added.

The  turtle eggs normally take 45 days to hatch. Around 50 forest guards and other officials are guarding the beach and the sea to protect the turtles and their eggs.The State Government had imposed a ban on fishing activities inside Gahirmatha marine sanctuary from November 1 last year to May 31 to protect the turtles. “We have already arrested around  730 fishermen and seized 90 boats and trawlers in Gahirmatha for violating the ban,” the forest officer said.

The rookery at Gahirmatha was declared a marine sanctuary in 1997 by the State Government.The Indian Coast Guard and the Forest department have established 15 camps to guard the turtles and prevent entry of fishing vessels. Besides preventing fishing in the prohibited zone, surprise raids are carried out on the fishermen to prevent them from fishing within the turtle congregation areas, said  Mishra.