Banyan Tree Marine Lab is pleased to announce the hatching of our first turtle nest in 2006. On 24th May 2006 almost 100 baby turtles hatched from the nest and made their way to the ocean, with the help of Banyan Tree Maldives Vabbinfaru staff and guests!

The nest was laid by a large green turtle (nicknamed ‘Betty 184’ because of the id code on the tag we deployed) on March 30th, staff and guests were privileged enough to watch the ‘Betty’ nesting. To protect the nest and Betty’s offspring, the Marine lab team relocated the nest to a safe place at the back of the beach.

Incubation time can be anywhere between 48 and 70 days, although it is usually approximately 60 days. The eggs had been incubating for 55 days and Marine Lab staff guessed the nest would hatch in a few days time... however it seemed that the babies had other ideas.

At 10.30pm that evening, Banyan Tree associate Noory noticed that there seemed to be a lot of crabs on the beach; on closer inspection he saw that they weren’t crabs but baby turtles, lots of them, everywhere! A volunteer turtle search and rescue party of staff and guests managed to collect 91 baby turtles from the beach! While it is important that the babies crawl down the beach to the sea on their own to build their swimming muscles and possibly to orientate themselves and remember home, the crawl to the sea can be very dangerous as there are lots of predators. For this reason the babies were collected and taken closer to the tide line where they were released, each hatchling had it’s very own volunteer guardian to make sure that it got to the sea safely. After escorting all 91 babies to the ocean and waving goodbye it was time for the rescue party to celebrate a job well done.

For the guests it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness and be a part of such a miracle of nature, something they will never forget… for the Marine Lab and staff of Banyan Tree it is just the beginning as there are another three nests waiting to hatch!

We would like you to join us in wishing our baby turtles good luck, green sea turtles are globally endangered and less than 1% of the babies will survive to adulthood – so let us hope that our turtles beat the odds!

Many thanks to all guests and members of staff of Banyan Tree who helped out that night!

Report by Alexandra Barron, Marine Lab Manager.

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