This was no usual boat cruise.
Rousing Chinese music, sounding more patriotic than pop, blared out of
the speakers. The motorboat operator wore the sea foam-green shirt of
the Chinese Coast Guard’s police force. Motoring through the harbour, we
passed one floating home after another – each a small house built on a
wooden platform over the water, with red paper lanterns in the corners
and laundry flapping on the washing lines.
Although I was a visitor in the floating village of Lingshui, located
just off the South China Sea island of Hainan, the boat ride wasn’t for
me. It was for my seven-year-old travel companion.
At 75kg, he already was so large that he could barely squeeze into
the space at the motorboat’s stern. Eager to get into the water, he
bucked his head and flapped his flippers. After all, it would be his
first time tasting freedom. Raised in captivity, the hawksbill turtle
was going to be released after this boat ride, his movements charted by
satellite communication with the 17cm antenna that rose from his shell.
A floating fishing village with 4,500 residents, Lingshui is also, quietly, home to something else: Sea Turtles 911, China’s only non-profit focused on saving sea turtles.
In some ways, the location choice seems odd. Most sea turtle species are endangered, and, along with climate change and coastal development, fishermen have historically been one of their main threats. In coastal areas worldwide, both sea turtle meat and eggs are considered culinary delicacies, while the shells have been good luck symbols for centuries in Asia, thought to have medicinal properties and coveted for ornamentation and jewellery. Even now that the sea turtle trade is illegal, both by Chinese and international law, all parts can fetch high prices on the black market. As a result, selling turtles is a tempting option that has devastated sea turtle populations.
This is particularly true in Southeast Asia’s “coral triangle”:
ground zero for the biodiversity of the world’s oceans and home to six
of the world’s seven marine turtle species. In fact, Hainan – wedged in
the South China Sea between the coral triangle and the hungry market of
mainland China – has been a pivotal location for the illegal trade.
According to a 2012 report by
Traffic East Asia: “It appears that the majority of illegal fishers
involved originated from Hainan, the majority of catches were landed in
this island province, and the Hainan markets were the main source for
processing and distributing turtle products northward into mainland
China.”
Yet this connection between the island and the animal was exactly why Frederick Yeh, the founder of Sea Turtles 911, started his non-profit here: to increase awareness of the turtles’ plight in order to address the problem at a local level.
Our boat pulled up to a wooden platform about 1km out into the
harbour, surrounded by the fishermen and their homes. Like the other
structures in Lingshui, the sea turtle hospital is little more than a
small dock topped with a hut. First impressions, though, were deceiving.
Inside, medications and IV drips stocked the building. Outside, a
large, netted cut-out from the wooden platform served as a lap pool for
about 15 sea turtles, including vulnerable olive ridley turtles,
endangered green turtles and critically endangered hawksbills.
Yeh scooped out a large green turtle named Genie and held her up. She
had a large scar on her bottom shell, the result of being accidentally
caught on a fishing hook. Brought to the attention of Yeh and his
volunteers in May 2014, Genie had been brought to the hospital and
nursed back to health; now, just four months later, she was being
released.
But the turtles aren’t just hurt by fishing. The other risks they face can be just as pernicious, like polluted water, which can give them bacterial, fungal and viral infections, or the plastic bags they ingest, mistaking them for jellyfish.
All of those factors are decreasing the sea turtle population
significantly, something Yeh has seen first-hand. Born on Hainan but
raised in the US, Yeh had just graduated from Maryland’s Johns Hopkins
University as a medical student when, on a visit to Hainan, he saw that
the turtle population was hugely diminished from when he was a child.
Those that used to nest on the island’s beaches no longer did. Yeh moved
back to Hainan and, in 2008, started the foundation. Since its opening,
the non-profit has rescued 273 sea turtles, rehabilitating and
releasing 238 of them.
More than a rescue mission, Yeh wants to increase awareness of the
sea turtles’ plight. Like any marine animal, the disappearance of sea
turtles affects the entire ecological system.
“Turtles are like underwater lawnmowers: they eat sea grass,” Yeh said. In the same way that lawn grass needs to be cut regularly to stay healthy and continue to grow, so does sea grass. “A lot of fishermen talk about how there are fewer fish today. Well, if sea grass isn’t there, it produces less oxygen, which leads to less fish.”
Sea Turtles 911 is only one part of a multi-pronged plan to raise
awareness. In the city of Sanya, for example, even the Ritz-Carlton has gotten involved.
The hotel has a purpose-built pool for rehabilitating sea turtles,
offer educational classes and hosts turtle releases from its beach.
On a visit to the Ritz-Carlton sea turtle sanctuary – “it’s like a mini hotel for turtles,” said Michel Goget, the hotel’s general manager – I watched Yeh carefully show the animals to children staying at the resort. One turtle had a swaybacked shell, the result of lordosis, a spinal disorder caused by malnutrition. As a hatchling, Yeh explained, the turtle had been a pet and had not been fed the varied diet that it needed.
Many of the children were from cities on China’s mainland and few had ever seen sea turtles before. This in-person encounter, Yeh hoped, would stick with them – enough to know, as adults, not to order sea turtle meat in a dish like turtle soup, and maybe even to spark an interest in helping the animals, too.
The Sea Turtles 911 team also studies where today’s turtles are
making their habitats, information that can help researchers figure out
how best to help the reptiles. That was why today’s release, the 75kg
hawksbill, was outfitted with an antenna. They’d know if he wound up
promptly caught in a fisherman’s net or thriving in the wild.
Leaving the turtle hospital, I climbed into a boat with some local reporters. Yeh, a couple of volunteers and several Coast Guard policemen loaded the boat with the hawksbill and we headed for the open sea.
As the fishermen’s village fell away behind us, the boats idled to a
stop. It took five men to haul the turtle up from the floor. He balanced
on the edge of the boat, in their arms, antenna sticking up to the sky.
The reporters’ telephoto lenses snapped like firecrackers. Someone
shouted. Everyone let go of the turtle at once. He plunged into the
water with a smack, followed by the sound of 10 people cheering and
clapping.
As he swam away from the boat, we could still make out his silhouette
under the water, moving with a grace no one could have guessed from his
flapping and bucking on board. Yeh pointed at his shape as it moved
farther and farther. And then the turtle was gone.
Motoring through the harbour (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
The seven-year-old, 75kg guest of honour (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
Heading into open sea (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
In some ways, the location choice seems odd. Most sea turtle species are endangered, and, along with climate change and coastal development, fishermen have historically been one of their main threats. In coastal areas worldwide, both sea turtle meat and eggs are considered culinary delicacies, while the shells have been good luck symbols for centuries in Asia, thought to have medicinal properties and coveted for ornamentation and jewellery. Even now that the sea turtle trade is illegal, both by Chinese and international law, all parts can fetch high prices on the black market. As a result, selling turtles is a tempting option that has devastated sea turtle populations.
The floating village of Lingshui (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
Yet this connection between the island and the animal was exactly why Frederick Yeh, the founder of Sea Turtles 911, started his non-profit here: to increase awareness of the turtles’ plight in order to address the problem at a local level.
A view of the sea turtle hospital (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
Genie stretches her fins (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
But the turtles aren’t just hurt by fishing. The other risks they face can be just as pernicious, like polluted water, which can give them bacterial, fungal and viral infections, or the plastic bags they ingest, mistaking them for jellyfish.
Fishermen, plying their trade (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
Fishermen, plying their trade (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
“Turtles are like underwater lawnmowers: they eat sea grass,” Yeh said. In the same way that lawn grass needs to be cut regularly to stay healthy and continue to grow, so does sea grass. “A lot of fishermen talk about how there are fewer fish today. Well, if sea grass isn’t there, it produces less oxygen, which leads to less fish.”
Passing neighbourhoods of floating homes (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
On a visit to the Ritz-Carlton sea turtle sanctuary – “it’s like a mini hotel for turtles,” said Michel Goget, the hotel’s general manager – I watched Yeh carefully show the animals to children staying at the resort. One turtle had a swaybacked shell, the result of lordosis, a spinal disorder caused by malnutrition. As a hatchling, Yeh explained, the turtle had been a pet and had not been fed the varied diet that it needed.
Many of the children were from cities on China’s mainland and few had ever seen sea turtles before. This in-person encounter, Yeh hoped, would stick with them – enough to know, as adults, not to order sea turtle meat in a dish like turtle soup, and maybe even to spark an interest in helping the animals, too.
The hawksbill's big adventure begins (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
Leaving the turtle hospital, I climbed into a boat with some local reporters. Yeh, a couple of volunteers and several Coast Guard policemen loaded the boat with the hawksbill and we headed for the open sea.
Preparing the hawksbill for release (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
The splash of freedom (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)
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