Bataan resort holds Pawikan Fest

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Blessed are these pawikan hatchlings.

As part of its Pawikan Festival last Sunday, the Montemar Beach Club in Bagac, Bataan released 67 hatchlings and an adult marine turtle into the sea.

Francisco Garcia, Montemar director, said they thought of the conservation project after discovering pawikan hatchlings crawling on the resort’s beach area sometime in August 2003.

The Pawikan Conservation Project conducted an initial investigation and found out that the beach was a nesting site for turtles, mostly of the Olive Ridley species.

Garcia said they subsequently held seminars for the locals in coordination with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the municipal government of Bagac.

He said their efforts paid off as they were able to convince fishermen to turn over to Montemar the turtles they had caught and the eggs they had gathered.

In the first year alone, he said 83 percent of the 1,300 turtle eggs turned over to them produced hatchlings, which were eventually released into the sea.