Save the Gili Turtles & Help to Build a Hatchery

Baby turtle announcements!

We never expected our 2023 start to the nesting season to be so busy!  After a late start due to the weather and a lot of rain, the nestin season picked up rapidly. 

We are trying very hard to encourage beachside businesses to keep their lights off after closing hours (instead of bright flood lights kept on the beach all night long) which has already had some really good responses. We are thankful for the businesses that are still mindful of the environment!

However, the island’s west side has seen a rapid influx of new beach clubs, with loud music, lights and activity happening late into the night this is proving more difficult and increasingly threatening to any natural beach activity each year. The west side was the last suitable hot spot for nesting turtles and we were worried that this will further discourage the turtles from nesting on Gili Trawangan.

However, our motto still stands strong, and ‘Education is the Answer!’ so, most of all, we are excited about the progress of the new start-up Projek Penyu. 

What is Projek Penyu?

Projek Penyu consists of 6 young and determined women from Gili Trawangan that are safeguarding the future of the turtle population on the Gilis. 

They made it their mission to help educate all the businesses in Gili Trawangan about our infamous turtles and their nesting habits. The 30-minute presentation has already seen some promising results, even in such a short time! With engaging audiences ranging from 3 or 4 staff of a small coconut shack to being invited to speak at a corporate event for the entire marketing team of PHM Hotels Indonesia. 

Hopefully, soon, the word will spread further, and we shall have an efficient small network of business resort owners and staff that can report any activity on the beach, late at night or in the morning so the team to respond more easily.

We believe that sharing this knowledge with the island resorts and most importantly, the local staff that keep them running, and offering them the skills to become stewards of their beach areas and turtles that may nest there. 

Free turtle workshops for whoever wants one!

One recent highlight was an entertaining workshop with the Villa Gili Bali Beach staff, who asked so many questions and enjoyed it so much that the workshop went on late into the night. :) A week later, they noticed a bucket of water filled with turtles in a neighbouring resort and immediately notified the Projec Penyu team. With their help and encouragement, the bucket of water was emptied and the baby turtles were released the same day as the report. And our network grows larger. :)
We are delighted with such small actions creating such essential impacts for the survival of future turtle populations, but also an eagerness for education amongst the local island businesses. 

Along with a free short workshop, the Projek Penyu will offer free learning materials for businesses to keep for reference, or to share with their guests along with a small bumper pack of plastic-free bamboo straws to further protect their cafes and beaches from plastic pollution. 

The turtle trackers continue their tracking

Additionally to this, our volunteer pool of turtle trackers has been growing throughout the season too.
We’ve been looking for long-term volunteers of 2 months or more, to be trained to complete turtle monitoring surveys at sunrise to see if any landings have taken place. We’ve carried out 4 trainings already this season, and seen more than 25 volunteers sign up to help us with this citizen science. Since April, we’ve carried out 64 surveys and witnessed 18 turtle landings that have been identified by the team.
Thanks to this, we can hide tracks, monitor for nest activity, and alert the nearby businesses to aid in the protection of the nests (and to invite them to a free workshop!) and have witnessed more than 10 successful turtle hatchings so far!

Sustainable turtle tourism

Educationally, tourists need to understand that planned and scheduled turtle releases are usually just in place to benefit tourists, rather than the wellbeing of the turtle hatchlings themselves. This is commonly known as a ‘tourist trap’ and is more than common across Indonesia (within turtle ‘conservation’ but also other animal welfare is at stake, with civets, monkeys, elephants and even dolphins still being exploited for entertainment under the facade of conservation)  

Turtles need to be released into the ocean immediately, or at the very earliest it is safe to do so. With a month in July of undesirably low tides in the evenings, some clutches that hatched at low tide, or were artificially dug up by unaware staff or tourists. These had to be released at high tide the following morning. This increases their chance of survival by minimizing the risk of scrambling 500 meters across the dry reef shelf instead of an 8-10 meter walk down the sandy beach and safely plopping into the sea. 

We hope to hold more turtle talks shortly! Not only for the staff working on the island and volunteer trackers but also visitors and tourists to the island so we can continue to spread ethical information about captive turtles and safe protocols.

This way we can share better lessons about not touching turtles when in immersive experiences with them, such as snorkelling and diving.

Because what else do we visit Gili for other than to see the magnificent Green and Hawksbill turtles?!

And finally, a big thank you

Of course, none of this would be possible without your help and support. We offer our gracious thanks to you for helping to continue working with the endangered turtles of Gili Trawangan. Please share our report with your friends and family, and any turtle lovers you know.

Links:

• Your best chance to spot baby turtles hatching