Conservation Groups in Coastal Kenya Work to Save Endangered Turtles

15 July 2010

Conservation workers in Kenya check sea turtles as part of their efforts to help preserve them

There's a sense of joy in the evening, as newborn turtles wriggle out of their nest and waddle to the ocean to begin their lives. Members of a local conservation group, Watamu Turtle Watch, have been observing the nest for a couple of days. They stand by to make sure the hatchlings reach their destination.

Conservationists estimate that only about one percent of these hatchlings will make it to adulthood.

Andrew Wamukota heads the Kenya Sea Turtle Conservation Committee, or KESCOM, which coordinates turtle conservation and education activities along Kenya's more than 500-kilometer coastline. "The majority of turtles are actually killed out of human activities," said Wamukota. "For example, of all the turtles that are killed out at sea, 85 percent of them are actually due to gill net fisheries. Another very huge percent is due to poaching and destruction of habitats."

Wamukota also says coastal communities have long made the turtle an important part of their diets and tradition. "They use turtle meat as food, they use turtle oil as medicine, they use turtle eggs as aphrodisiacs and other things," said Wamukota. "Therefore, to be able to shift the behavior of these people, to look at the turtle the other way around, then you have to involve them in the conservation of the same."