Today we spent the day at Le Meridien.
The resort has a Turtle Sanctuary where anyone can come and watch the feeding and also learn about the protection program they work on. Afterwards you get to swim with the reptiles in the lagoon!
It's a great program they have. Sebastian, the turtle man, has worked with the program for 7 years. The Green Sea Turtle is extinct and what they try to do is involve the locals in the mission to ensure a future for the turtles, as in their "culture" they eat sea turtle. It used to be only the royals who got to eat them (when they had tribes living on the islands), but today the locals hunt them and sell them on the black market for a lot of money. Just a few turtles, and they can buy a fishing boat!
It's a hard task though for the turtle man as the locals don't understand the seriousness. A sea turtle live for about 80 years, but don't mature until it's about 20-30 years old so the process is very slow and only 1 out of 1000 baby turtles survive! The turtle man said something very interesting. The tahitian language does not include past or future, so the people only live in the present. They live day by day and he said it's complicated to get them to understand that if they continue to hunt them, there will be no left in a few years.
It's a slow process, but the turtle man seems hopeful!
We sure had a great and interesting day!
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| Le Meridien as we arrive with the boat |
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| Three turtles feeding |
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| A young turtle! |
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| Feeding time. They eat lettuce and tuna. Interesting fact... They eat meat when they are young, but turn vegetarian when they get older! Also, as they turn vegetarian, their color turn green! |
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| We were not allowed to touch them or feed them |
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| It was so much fun! |
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| And they would swim right up to you |
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| Me at the sanctuary |
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| La Meridien infinity pool! Had to check that out too! |
Cheers my friends!
Camilla
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