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April 28, 2017

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Crackdown on poaching sees turtles flourish

GANQUAN Island used to be a haven for seafarers sailing along the ancient maritime silk route as it is one of two islands in the South China Sea that has underground fresh water.

The island has been inhabited by Chinese fishermen for hundreds of years, a dozen of which are still living there, although they are outnumbered by other of its more exotic residents: green sea turtles.

Located in the west of China’s Xisha archipelago, the island of Ganquan, which literally means sweet spring, is an ideal place for sea turtles due to its fine sandy beach and large mass of coral reef surrounding the island.

“We have 800 little turtles to take care of,” said Li Yanfen, 33, a worker with the local sea turtle preservation station, run by the island’s community.

Li was a fisherman in the port town of Tanmen in China’s southernmost island province of Hainan, more than 300 kilometers from Xisha. He came to Ganquan as a turtle breeder when the preservation station was established in 2013.

“April to October is the breeding season for sea turtles. We patrol the beach daily looking for turtle nests that are too close to the sea, and if we find any, we dig out the eggs and take them to the station,” Li said. “If not, high tides will submerge the nests and ruin the eggs.”

“In the natural environment, the hatching rate of the turtle eggs is about 10 percent, but the rate can be as high as 80 percent at the station,” he said.

At the station, the eggs are placed in buckets full of sand, and hatch after 45 to 60 days.

Living on fish, the captive turtles can grow to 0.5 to 0.8 kilograms in six months.

“Their shells will be hard enough by that time to guard themselves against their predators such as birds, crabs and fish,” Li said. “When we release them into the sea, their survival rates are much higher.”

In the past four years, Li and his colleagues at the station have bred about 2,000 sea turtles and released more than 1,000 into the sea.

The green sea turtles used to be abundant in Xisha, but due to years of excessive hunting, their numbers dropped drastically.

In 1989, China listed the species under state protection and have cracked down on the capture and trade of sea turtles and their eggs.

After Sansha City was established in 2012, the city government issued a strict ban on turtle poaching in all areas under its jurisdiction, including Xisha, while educating local fishermen to protect the rare species.

Since then poaching has plummeted and local fishermen have voluntarily taken up the job of turtle protection.

In 2015 the community of Beidao Island of Xisha also set up a turtle preservation station.

Huang Hongbo and his two sons are among 15 fishermen who have patrolled the island over the last two years to protect the exotic creatures.

“If we find turtle nests on the beach, we will set up a wooden sign to alert local fishermen to be careful and not harm them,” said Huang, 65, head of the turtle preservation station. “We also patrol along the beach to find strangers who may have come to steal turtle eggs.”

Huang revealed the green turtles often crawl along the beach at night with the tide.

“Female turtles will choose soft sandy beach, dig out holes with their flippers and then lay eggs inside. The size of an egg is as big as a ping pong ball,” Huang said.

In 2016, Huang and his colleagues found more than 160 turtle nests on the island.




 

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