On Bali, turtles have become a business. Help change that.
Turtle centres on Bali are tourist attractions. Hatchlings are kept in small pools, and tourists pay around EUR 20–25 to buy one and release it into the sea. But most turtles don’t survive this kind of release.
Turtles naturally hatch at night, yet tourists visit during the day, and the hatchlings often burn their undersides on the scorching sand. Having never been able to dive in a shallow pool, their lungs aren’t properly developed. Constant swimming in the pools leaves them exhausted, and they can no longer find food on their own. Even if they survive, they can’t return to the beach where they hatched to lay their own eggs one day.
The centres also keep adult turtles, claiming they are injured and couldn’t survive in the wild. In reality, only a very small share of them truly need human care. The rest are there for the tourists.
Save Turtle (Chráníme mořské želvy z.s.) wants to open a centre on Bali that does conservation right: for the turtles, not for profit. The project is led by Hana Vašina Svobodová, who has been fighting for sea turtles for 22 years. Bali would become the ninth location in Indonesia where the organisation protects turtles. The goal is approx. EUR 18,500 to get the centre running.
See the full story in the documentary In the Shadow of Bali on 25 November at 7 pm at Kino Přítomnost in Prague or online at www.vestinubali.cz.
