She has dedicated her life to turtle conservation. These are tourist traps that kill them.
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All sea turtle species are threatened with extinction. The situation is worst in the Indian Ocean, where in many places turtles have already disappeared completely. It is not just industry or plastics in the oceans that are to blame, but often tourists who have no idea what damage they are doing.
Our guest is Hana Vasina Svobodova, graduated biologist and founder of the organization Save turtles. She has been involved in sea turtle conservation since 2004, when she first went to Mexico as a volunteer. Today, her organization funds conservation in 8 sites in Indonesia and 3 sites in southern Sri Lanka. Since 2014, more than 5,000,000 small turtles have been released from there into the sea.
In today's episode, we talk about what hurts turtles the most, what a typical day in the field looks like for conservationists, why tourists are one of the biggest problems, and what to watch out for when you go to the tropics on vacation.
On the Indonesian island of Denawan, Hanka and a group of conservationists guard a sea turtle nesting site from poachers. The island is uninhabited, with no shops, no roads and the only connection to the world is a boat that is at the end of its life after seven years of operation. A Boat for the Turtle Guardiansso that they can continue their work and be sure that if someone gets hurt, they can leave.
Help us secure it. You can donate as little as EUR 1 and every penny counts.
