World Wildlife Day: ‘Tiny creatures taking big tasks for the Earth’

SAN JUAN, La Union, Philippines – A backyard pawikan conservation and protection program is thriving in this northern coastal town following the discovery of hatchlings of the endangered olive ridley turtle last month.

Marissa Tamayo and her daughter Sachi stumbled on more than a dozen hatchlings in the sand one moonlit night while walking along San Juan beach. The olive ridley sea turtles, fast becoming rare and extinct around the world, were just hatched from a nest in the fine sand, barely weeks before World Wildlife Day on March 3.

The Tamayos including Marissa’s son Carlos are volunteers of Project CURMA, or Coastal Underwater Resource Management Actions.

Assisted by Science of Identity Foundation (SIF-CARE), the Tamayos looked after the olive ridleys in the conservation project, where it became their passion “to care … for life.” 

“My sister Sachi began to train on the proper handling of found nests until they are hatched and freed to the sea,” Carlos said, explaining that eggs the size of table tennis balls must be handled correctly and transferred to a hatchery in the same state they were found in the sand. 

Carlos said mother sea turtles lay eggs to become stronger hatchlings first. A unique “pawikan mentality,” as opposed to “crab mentality,” sees stronger hatchlings push their weaker siblings up the sand after some two months of incubation.  

CURMA’s founder is Carlos’ father Toby, a former professor at the Philippine Military Academy, veteran environmentalist and an accomplished beekeeper of Tobees Apiary in Baguio City. The Tamayos had since migrated to San Juan, La Union. 

The older Tamayo explains that sea turtles “are a keystone species.”    

Sea turtles, especially green sea turtles, are one of very few creatures (manatees are another) that eat sea grass. Sea grass needs to be constantly trimmed to help it grow across the sea floor. Sea turtle grazing helps maintain the health of the sea grass beds, which provide breeding and developmental grounds for numerous marine animals. Without sea grass beds, many marine species that humans harvest would be lost, as would the lower rungs of the food chain. This could result in more marine species becoming endangered or extinct. 

SIF resident trainor Patrick Andrada said only sea turtles feed on jellyfish. If they become extinct, the deadly jelly fishes will multiply exponentially. 

CURMA volunteers have freed 8,700 young olive ridley hatchlings from their hatchery at Barangay Ili Norte this season. Hopefully, they would come back to lay their eggs here after 25 years, Andrada said.  

In the 2009-2010 laying season, almost 15,000 hatchlings were freed into the sea. The next season, 12,000, then 9,000 and 6,000. 

Sea turtles have a special memory that tells them where exactly they started to walk toward the shore. “So we free them at least 10 meters from the sea and allow them to walk to their freedom,” he said. 

Laying season starts every October and ends in February.

More than a hundred eggs on a Dec. 17, 2016 nest hatched 58 days later on Feb. 15, and more than a hundred more on a Dec. 19 nest hatched Feb. 21. “Hatchlings have to be freed an hour after it breaks out from its eggshell, otherwise they would not make it,” said Kesh, a UP-Baguio Math graduate who volunteered at CURMA in 2012.

At the start of the conservation program, local fisherfolk seemed resistant, the younger Tamayo said. “Olive ridleys were food to them, if not money,” he said. Challenged by this predicament, the local community has since been engaged as active partners in wildlife conservation through various education campaigns.

“Former poachers are now with us every day for the 1 to 3 a.m. beach patrols for nests,” one of the beach rangers said. 

CURMA believes that marine conservation starts at the grassroots level. Local fishermen have become Project CURMA’s partners. Lobby work drew support from the San Juan local government, which now shells out P1,500 per-catch-incentive to fishermen who find olive ridley adults at sea or along the beach.

Even resort owners have partnered with them to harmonize the growing tourism industry and look after the olive ridleys. “We’ve talked to resort owners to minimize strong white light that scares away mother olive ridleys from laying their eggs,” Carlos said. 

Beach resort guests are also introduced to the sea turtle world and ongoing conservation efforts by being asked to participate in freeing the hatchlings to the sea, Kesh said. Resort guests are barred from staying on the beach between 1 to 3 a.m. to avoid scaring mother sea turtles from seeking their laying site.

On Feb. 15, CURMA volunteers and local tourists released two dozen hatchlings into the sea. 

Conservation challenge

Perhaps the most challenging in the conservation effort of Project CURMA is the bustling tourism at the nesting ground of the olive ridleys.  

A major international hotel chain plans to build right where the nests were found by the dawn patrols last December, the elder Tamayo hinted, sounding apprehensive. “We were able to negotiate (with the developer) to do structural considerations,” he said. They can build but not too close to the nesting site.

If not, the more than a hundred hatchlings freed into the sea last February won’t be able to come back and lay their eggs 20 years from now if San Juan beach becomes unrecognizable to the pawikan.