Category
Making a Difference To Mother Ocean
Welcoming an incentive program of 90 guests from the US, we at CDM were asked by the incentive house to make a sustainable activity part of the whole incentive trip.
With our suggestions and expertise they chose “Turtle Release” which falls into UNSDG14 – Life Below Water. As the guests were from a company in an industry very closely associated with water and the ocean life, it made sense to make the CSR element something that gave back to mother ocean.
The turtle conservation program is run by The Royal Thai Navy which has an active role in the project and regularly patrols beaches in the Similan and Surin Islands in the Andaman Sea warding off intruders and poachers. They also protect the green and hawksbill eggs laid on the remote islands and keep them safe from predators such as birds and crabs. Once they are born, the turtles are brought to the Navy’s turtle protection centre in Phang-nga province where they are nursed for another six months before being released into the sea.
Green turtles are among the biggest sea turtle species in existence. Mature green turtles typically weigh anywhere between 150 and 400 pounds. and are usually anywhere between 31 and 47 inches in length. They’re at risk due to the hunting of mature specimens, excessive harvesting of their eggs and the decrease of nesting locations for them – beaches.
For this group’s release, an area was set up on the beach near their hotel and and a ceremony undertaken, with speeches from the head of the RTN conservation center and the company president. The baby green turtles were then released by the group, who watched with delight as the turtles made their way across the beach and crawled into the water.