‘VSL’ Sea Turtle Conservation Project
The Sea turtle conservation volunteering, as the name suggests, is dedicated to the preservation and development of Sea turtles. Volunteers who are fond of wildlife especially marine animals are highly recommended to join this project.
Volunteers will have the opportunity to learn about turtle conservation. If you plan to join this project, you must be ready some physically demanding field tasks.
As an island country, volunteers who work on the Sea turtle conservation program, benefit from enjoying and exploring the pristine of beaches of Sri Lanka.
This project it just 20 Minutes from the VSL Volunteer accommodation. The ‘sea turtle hatchery’ is a non-profit organization which is maintained for the survival of the next generation of turtles. The centre was established in 2007 and to date have protected and released more than 125,000 sea turtles to the ocean.
Of the seven species of marine turtles that exist worldwide, five species live in the waters around Sri Lanka. If you are in luck, you can see them swimming near the beach.
Volunteer tasks:
1.Collect turtle eggs from the beach and buy them from the fishermen.
2.Help bury eggs in order to rescue them from the poachers.
3.Conduct daily checks on the eggs to check their hatching time and help the emerging baby turtles.
4.Take care of cleaning, feeding and helping the turtles in whatever way possible.
5.Washing the sea turtle tanks and refill them with sea water.
6.Help prepare food and hand feed turtles with injuries.
7.Provide treatments for injured turtles caught by fishing nets (when we gain information about injured turtles, we make every effort to visit the turtle and start doing necessary treatments to recover it. We go anywhere for this service).
8.Raise the awareness of marine turtle conservation needs at regional levels.
9.Conduct continuous studies on post-nesting migrations and biology of marine turtles.
10.Share tracking data and findings to relevant authorities and contribute to the development of a regional marine turtle conservation plan.