Sea Turtle Conservation at Puri Dajuma

Sea turtle conservation is a real concern for a long time insofar as their reproduction process is difficult and subject to various threats : when the turtle comes out from the sea to spawn on the beach, the fragile eggs even buried in the sand are often eaten by errant dogs, cats, birds and sometimes people. Same scenario when the egg comes to maturation : the baby turtle has to join the sea and only 1 out of 1000 will really survive. On Dajuma beach, nearby our hotel, we are used to have sea turtles spawning every year. Our staff has trained the villagers to bring the eggs to the Turtle Conservation Program, located a few kilometers from Dajuma. This program initiated by the WWF fifteen years ago is today sponsored by private firms including Dajuma. It is headed by I Komang Gunawan (kurmaasih@gmail.com) whose family with successively his grand father and his father has been involved for 3 generations with turtles. Initially turtles’ hunters until 1997, they decided to switch to their conservation with the WWF technical and financial support which ended in 2002. Today Komang is proud of his contribution to the survival of threatened species such as turtles and on our side we are happy to bring our support to him.

We regularly invite our guests to visit his facilities, and contribute to the development of his center by sponsoring a “turtles nest” which generally counts several tens of eggs. This is what happened a few days ago with a French family who sponsored 60 eggs which should hatch in a few weeks. Needless to say that the emotion was great when the kids were able to take in their hands these so fragile animals ! Well done guys !