On 6 August 2006, Sri Lanka will commemorate the Year of the Turtle 2006 with an official declaration of Sri Lanka's first marine turtle sanctuary and satellite tracking program in Rekawa.

The Turtle Conservation Project (TCP), in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife Conservation, is organizing various events to commemorate the “Year of the Turtle”. Among these events, official declaration of Rekawa Sanctuary for marine turtle conservation and releasing of sea turtles with satellite transmitters are the two priority events that will contribute towards the conservation efforts of sea turtle conservation in Sri Lanka.

The official ceremony of the declaration of Sri Lanka's first Wildlife Sanctuary for marine turtles and the Country's First Marine Turtle Satellite Tracking Programme will be held on the 6th of August at 7.30 a.m at Rekawa TCP office by the participation of the Honorable Minister of Agricultural Development Mr. Chamal Rajapakshe.

SEA TURTLE SATELLITE TRACKING IN SRI LANKA

This project aims to reveal for the first time the inter-nesting habitat, post-nesting migratory routes and foraging grounds of adult female green turtles (Chelonia mydas) nesting in Sri Lanka.

This will be achieved by attaching 6 Sirtrak satellite transmitters to the carapaces of the female green turtles shortly after they have nested at the Rekawa rookery in conjunction with the TCP’s flipper-tagging and genetic sampling studies at the Rekawa project site. The turtles will then be tracked via the Argos satellite system for an anticipated average of 10 months per animal. Through analysis of the data generated by the tags, this project will provide a valuable insight into the ecology of Sri Lanka’s green turtles throughout their range and will be critical to understanding and addressing potential local threats at sea, as well as the impacts of incidental catch in regional high seas fisheries and coastal fisheries in other areas of their range.

This project involves collaborations between groups from 3 different continents and is designed to foster international relations and facilitate the exchange of highly specialised skills. As such, capacity building is an essential and integral part of this project. The Marine Turtle Research Group staffs are highly experienced in the attachment and processing of satellite transmitters and telemetry data. This project will involve in-field training to Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) officers; TCP officers and other interested parties so that they may continue the project into the future.

The project will be filmed by the BBC Natural History Unit to be the main feature of a 30-minute documentary that will feature in a new BBC series. The series will feature successful conservation projects around the world and will be broadcast in September 2007. Once tagged, the real-time tracking maps of the turtles’ journeys will be available live at www.seaturtle.org/tracking to anyone with internet access around the world. A dedicated international press strategy will link this pioneering online facility to the BBC documentary thereby raising national and international awareness of the plight of Sri Lanka’s endangered marine turtles. 

Source:
Thushan Kapurusinghe
Project Leader - TCP Sri Lanka