the sint maarten nature foundation recorded sunday evening on the beach of simpson bay, the first leatherback turtle laying since irma.
Sunday evening, April 28, the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation, warned by a local resident, recorded the first leatherback turtle laying of the season on Simpson Bay beach.
The leatherback turtle is one of three species of sea turtles (along with the green turtle and the hawksbill turtle) that come to lay their eggs every year between March and November on the beaches of the island. But it is the rarest.
Last year, out of the 104 traces of spawning activities observed in the French part by the Nature Reserve and the ecovolunteers, none corresponded to that of a leatherback turtle.
The Sint Maarten Nature Foundation has been monitoring partly Dutch sea turtle spawning since 1997. It also did not observe any traces of leatherback turtles last year. “Although we spotted nests and tracks of green and hawksbill turtles last year, leatherback turtles have not laid eggs on our beaches since Irma,” says Melanie Meijer of the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation.
She reminds the population that it is important to minimize the lights on the beaches, to leave the beaches clean, to be careful in a boat, to avoid the lights on the beaches, to be careful when planting your parasol in the sand and not to disturb the laying females.
(Source:
www.soualigapost.com)
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