The turtle protection team have had a difficult first half of this laying season. We have no volunteers from ‘outside’ this year and their absence has made a significant difference as the local community seem to have taken this as a bit of a license to revert to their former practice of killing the turtles. The protection teams have encountered a certain level of hostility from people who want to kill and eat the animals.

In the three months so far we have seen 63 turtles. We have managed to protect 48 of them, and sadly 15 were killed. We do have some great news this season. We have relocated 1023 eggs to a protected hatching site. Despite current losses this gives me some hope for the future.

You may have seen the article in USA Today :

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/01/02/globalpost-species-near-extinction/21182221/
13 species we might have to say goodbye to in 2015
4. LEATHERBACK TURTLE

As you can see the leatherback is listed at number 4.
I have also become very concerned this year at the terrible killing of huge numbers of rhino and elephant across the whole of Africa. As well as this, a number of recent reports show that the world has destroyed half of all wildlife in the last 40 years :
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/29/earth-lost-50-wildlife-in-40-years-wwf
Pictures like this :

leave me full of sadness and feelings of despair. This brutality is matched by the treatment of the turtles we are trying to protect.
Personally, I feel responsible for what is happening to these animals, and I feel it is my duty to try and do all I can to try and protect them. I will be trying to protect the animal kingdom for the rest of my life. For me it is not OK to sit to one side and watch this happen. I have a duty of care, not just to these animals, but to my grandchildren, and to yours, a duty not to leave their world utterly impoverished, destroyed by greed and ignorance.

From Hugh Newton

Results in Detail

October
Leatherback 2
Olive Ridley 9 ( and 2 dead )
Eggs protected 186

November
Leatherback 2
Olive Ridley 16 ( and 7 dead )
Eggs protected 346

December
Leatherback 13 ( and 5 killed )
Olive Ridley 6 ( and 1 dead )
Eggs protected 491