It came to yet another endless struggle as a female turtle whose species is yet to be identified beached at Monuriki Island on February 3rd just west of Viti Levu in the Mamanuca group of Islands to lay its eggs. The nest was first identified by a staff of the Seaspray Sailing Adventure schooner that visits the island daily with their day trippers.
Anare Senibuli a staff of the South Sea Cruises and is a tour guide on the Seaspray Sailing Adventure Fiji Islands who first saw the turtle nest said that he first identified the turtles crawl marks on the beach trailing towards nesting site, at this discovery he then made an effort to inform the Mamanuca Environment Society (MES) who at that time were carrying out Turtle beach surveys at Malamala Island and Navini Island within the neighbouring islands.
Within a week after the turtle nested the MES team had arrived at Monuriki to mark the area and also count the eggs that had to be monitored within the next two months before hatching.
The MES team camped on site at Monuriki Island for three more days as carried out their Turtle Project Survey of the Island at night and in the day conducted awareness with the day trippers from numerous resorts throughout the Mamanuca group who visit the island for picnic and also took part activities towards the conservation of Sea Turtles in the Mamanucas.
The day trippers learned about the Mamanuca Environment Society their role and also the numerous projects they have in and around the Mamanucas with relation to conservation and protection of the environment. But the main focus was awareness on the Mamanuca Turtle Project and why working collaboratively with the member resorts and other establishments in the tourism realm in the Mamanucas helped a lot with the collection of information and monitoring as stated by MES Technical Officer Kolinio Vulaono.
The Mamanuca Environment Society is so thankful that all conservation initiative in the region is supported by communities in the Malolo District and the tourist operators in the region. More awareness programs including the community schools will continue through out the year.
