Kendrapara: Ahead of the annual mass nesting of endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles, pairs of these delicate marine creatures have begun emerging on the swirling sea waters off Odisha coast, officials said Wednesday.
Forest personnel on patrolling duties have sighted pairs of mating turtles. It’s a prelude to the mass nesting of turtles which generally occurs between February and March every year. For undisturbed breeding of the aquatic animals, prohibition on sea fishing continues to remain in force in the marine sanctuary, officials said.
As many as 11.49 lakh female turtles had laid millions of eggs along the nesting beaches in Odisha this year.
Gahirmatha beach, off the Bay of Bengal coast, is incidentally acclaimed as the world’s largest-known nesting ground of these animals.
Apart from Gahirmatha, these threatened aquatic animals turn up at Rushikulya river mouth and Devi river mouth for mass nesting.
On the serene surface of sea waters, the turtle surveying teams spotted hundreds of mating pairs along the Gahirmatha coast. Fishing prohibition is presently clamped in Gahirmatha zone to ensure disturbance-free mating of the marine animals. After the end of the mating season, most of the male turtles usually return leaving behind the female turtles to lay their eggs, said Gahirmatha forest range officer Manas Dash.
The female turtles virtually invade the nesting beaches usually at the dead of the night for laying eggs, the phenomenon otherwise described as ‘arribada’. After laying eggs, the turtles leave the nesting ground and head for the sea.
Hatchlings emerge from these eggs after 45-60 days. It is a rare natural phenomenon where the babies grow without their mother, added the forest officer.
The ban on sea fishing remains in force round the year in Gahirmatha marine sanctuary as the seawater here is the most conducive habitat for these marine species.
Rise in mortality rate of mating turtles along the coastal water surface led to the clamping of prohibition as the gill nets used by the trawls prove to be messengers of death for breeding turtles. The mute species, accorded as Schedule-1 animal under wildlife protection Act for its highly threatened status, get entangled in the nets for prolonged periods and die of asphyxiation. The turtles also perish in large numbers after getting hit by the fast moving propeller of the fishing trawlers, forest personnel said.
An Olive Ridley usually lays about 120 to 150 eggs from which hatchlings emerge after about 45 to 60 days. But not all eggs remain intact as predators devour it.
Besides, eggs are also washed away by sea waves during high tide. The eggs are incubated in the nest and grow, sans mother, to emerge as hatchlings.
PTI
