PHNOM PENH — In late December 2023, on a remote island in Preah Sihanouk province, off the southwest coast of Cambodia, a team of conservationists uncovered nine nests belonging to sea turtles after more than a decade of searching for them. Cambodia’s marine turtle population has long been declining, but this discovery has sparked hope among conservationists that the critically endangered hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) and endangered green turtles (Chelonia mydas) have not vanished from Cambodia’s waters. Nine nests were discovered by volunteers from the Royal Cambodian Navy who are stationed on the island and have been trained by Fauna & Flora to monitor for the presence of sea turtles after a nest was discovered in March 2022. That initial finding of a single nest represented the first time that a sea turtle nest had been seen in Cambodia for a decade, highlighting the species’ decline. During the final days of 2023, naval personnel uncovered the nine nests, two of which had already hatched, and were able to estimate that the nests could hold as many as 1,000 eggs. It is believed that all of the nests should have hatched before the end of January 2024. Hatched eggs were excavated by naval volunteers to assess the success rate. Image supplied by Fauna & Flora. Matt Glue, a marine technical specialist working with Fauna & Flora in Cambodia, was able to confirm that some of the newly discovered nests were laid by a green turtle due to a female being spotted…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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