Sea turtle conservation in Sri Lanka
Availability: All year round
Project Start Date:Saturdays
Project Work Days:Monday to Fridays (weekends are free)
Support:Program Manager gives training on arrival, our project coordinator goes with the volunteers daily and the turtle hatchery staff are also actively involved in providing guidance and direction during the time you spend there.
Minimum Project Duration: 1 weeks
Maximum Project Duration: 12 weeks
Conservation volunteering is a great way of gaining knowledge and learning, discovering a new country, and getting to know a new culture, whilst doing your bit to save the environment at the same time. Sri Lanka has several nesting beaches for sea turtles and unfortunately poaching from humans, predators and dogs can be a common occurance if unsupervised. In addition with increased tourism and fishing activities turtles also get caught in fishing nets and get injured. To safeguard against this and to provide care for the well-being of sea turtles, the Sri Lankan government have authorised several turtle hatcheries along the country’s western and southern coastline.
The main purpose of the hatchery is to provide for the overall well-being of the sea turtles and increase their numbers through conservation efforts. This includes monitoring the mother turtles when they show up to hatch, preserving the eggs once laid from predators and poachers, providing a safe haven for hatchings to occur, caring for the baby turtles and releasing the healthy ones into the ocean and caring for sick and injured turtles by providing them with a clean environment and feeding them every day. While these hatcheries engage in conservation efforts to support the sea turtles ecosystem, it is important to note that they also rely on contributions from tourists (who visit these hatcheries to learn about sea turtles) to earn a living as they receive little to no funding fromt the government to maintain their operations.
Having volunteers support these hatcheries through their efforts is very valuable for their sustainability and also goes a long way in helping them financially as fees are given to these hatcheries as a placement fee for each volunteer.
Sea Turtle Conservation Gallery
What is involved
On this program, as a volunteers you will perform a range of activities that are essential for the smooth running of the sea turtle hatchery. These include, but are not limited to, depositing/burying the eggs safely in the egg farm, filling up tanks with fresh ocean water on a regular basis, cleaning the tanks and feeding the turtles perioidcally. You also do beach cleaning once every two weeks or so, which involves a thorough cleaning of the part of the beach where the mother turtles nest their eggs, in order to provide them with a safe and clean nesting space. Volunteers also get to release baby and young turtles into the ocean before leaving.
Additionally, we also do special community awareness projects in rural schools and communities to educate the general public about coastal and marine life. During nesting season which is December to April usually, night camps are organised where the entire group camps out in tents on the beach to watch the turtles lay eggs.
Volunteers on the sea turtle conservation program work Monday to Friday either early morning or late afternoon shifts which last for 2-3 hours a day. On the weekends you can explore the beautiful country of Sri Lanka and visit the beaches for Surf lessons or go diving. This program is suitable for families, solo travellers, students, friends and marine conservation enthusiasts
Some details
| 2019 | 2020 | 2020 | 2020 | 2020 |
| November | January | April | July | October |
| 23,30 | 4,11,18,25 | 4, 11, 18, 25 | 4, 11, 18, 25 | 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 |
| December | February | May | August | November |
| 1, 8, 20 | 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 | 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 | 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 | 7, 14, 21, 28 |
| March | June | September | December | |
| 7, 14, 21, 28 | 6, 13, 20, 27 | 5,12,19,26 | 5, 12, 19, 26 |
What your first week looks like
Arrival day
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