As our responsibility increased to include two stretches both covering over 7 Kms each, we tried to employ people as we were afraid the load of covering both stretches would be too much for our volunteers.

Although we tried for over a month, we were unable to get anyone responsible or reliable. As a result the job had to be undertaken wholly by volunteers.

It was a very successful nesting season with 85 nests relocated into the Besant Nagar hatchery and 80 nests into the Marina hatchery. Intense patrolling by the volunteers ensured that nests were not left undetected on the beach as this would surely mean disorientation for the emerging hatchlings due to lights, or risk of them being caught by dogs or crabs.

This involved monitoring the two hatcheries through the day as well as late nights and early mornings. We managed to release a total of 14, 238 hatchlings which is the highest number in many years.

Students from schools, and colleges as well as families, joined our walks every weekend. In the evenings, children too young to join night walks came regularly to the hatchery and participated with great excitement in the hatchling release.

Overall it was an extremely successful season and we felt all the hard work and enthusiasm that went in, really paid off.

Read all about it and more in this article:

http://iotn.org/iotn14_8.html

Government orders mast lights to be switched off!

For more information visit:

http://iotn.org/iotn14_6.html

The follow up action taken by the Government was then outlined in Sanctuary Asia’s October 2008 issue. The article can be accessed using the following link.

http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1338:turtles-and-casuarina-&catid=132:campaigns-archive

To view the April 2008 article, the following link can be used.

http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=491:world-bank-vs-sea-turtles-trauma-in-tamil-nadu&catid=113:campaigns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCzFGtYbm9U

Satan and Sin, two jet black dogs with yellow eyes, fat and jolly, full of energy, meet us turtle walkers on most nights and walk with us till the hatchery. In a world of relationships based on give and take, this beautiful friendship is based on nothing material. They expect nothing from us, and most of the time we have nothing to give, except some warm hugs and of course, our company. And what’s most amazing, is that we aren’t the same people walking everyday. Almost everyday, a different pair of SSTCN members walks. Satan and Sin bear the same good cheer, and it is beautifully unconditional.

They often come by themselves and and sometimes bring other friends along. They play the entire way, often taking quick baths in the sea. These must be the cleanest dogs, with a bath every hour! Incidentally, they never harm the turtles, or the turtle eggs. They sleep with us in the hatchery and walk with us up till the bus stop. After putting us into the bus, they walk back to their daytime area.

Those of you who understand dogs will understand that by walking 5 kilometres with us, they cross hundreds of other dog territories, but our friends have never confronted any other dogs, and whenever confronted, have always maintained a dignified prescence.

This brings us to Inji, our former president, as we’d like to think of him. Inji used to walk with us everyday, unfailingly, from Besant Nagar to Neelankarai. We named him after Niranjan, a passionate turtle walker who died in the Himalayas. Inji walked with us from January to March, and then as the turtle nesting season drew to a close and it was time for us to go directly to the hatchery to release hatchlings, he would walk alone all the way. That was truly fascinating for a lone dog to do; walk all the way from Besant Nagar to Neelankarai, crossing all the kuppams (fishing villages) with their territorial dogs.

Then, by mid-April, Inji decided that he would shift base, and moved to the hatchery. This brought about a complete change in his character. He was, till then, a pig-nosed, dreamy, friendly dog but once he found a home, he turned territorial and would guard it fiercely. We changed his name to Inji Pratap Singh and as his power and domination grew, Thakur Inji Pratap Singh!

Unfortunately, the season got over and it was time to pull down the hatchery. After that, Inji became really upset and bad tempered, and on one occasion bit a boy from the kuppam who teased him. We paid for the boy’s treatment, but from that day on, our friend was a marked dog. We tried bringing him to Besant Nagar with us, but he would always run back. We made arrangements for him to be fed, and often went to check up on him, but one day he just disappeared. In a world of spite, one can definitely imagine what must have happened. After this, we posthumously made Inji the President of SSTCN.

Sea turtles’ mystery hideout revealed – LiveScience – MSNBC.com

Once sea-turtle hatchlings hit the surf, they vanish for up to five years. Where the half-dollar-size tots spend these ‘lost years’ while ballooning to the size of dinner plates has been a mystery, until now.

New research, published in the online edition of the journal Biology Letters, indicates the green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) hide out in the open ocean, where they feast on jellyfish and other marine creatures.

Turns out that they’ve been “hiding out” in the open ocean eating meat to augment their vegetarian adult diet. I have not seen the paper (reference below), but the study was based on an analysis of their shell content. Carbon and Nitrogen isotope analysis was used as a marker for diet and location.

The ‘lost years’ of green turtles: using stable isotopes to study cryptic lifestages

Kimberly J. Reich, Karen A. Bjorndal, Alan B. Bolten

Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research, Department of Zoology, PO Box 118525, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA