Beach cleaning drive planned to save turtles.

Byline: Our Correspondent

(Images: clean.jpg)

Passion-Trek, Bait al Baranda, the municipality of Sharqiyah and the sheikh 

of Ras al Hadd join hands for campaign on October 23 and 24

At a time when Oman is positioning itself as an upcoming tourist destination, litter on beaches has become a concern in a fragile eco system

that is home to the sultanate's pri-zed possession - Green Sea Turtles. Passion-Trek, a company that org-anises nature trails and tourist

packages for European visitors, claims a shocking number of Green Sea Turtles have been killed as a direct consequence of beach littering and indiscriminate fishing in

the sultanate.

With this in mind, Emilie Luquel and Pascal Beaudemoulin, who

run Passion-Trek, have organised a beach clean-up campaign at Ras al Hadd on October 23 and 24. "Our message is clear - people should

care for the environment and keep areas green. Don't throw rubbish everywhere; it's the only way we

can keep Oman green and beautiful." Bait al Baranda Museum, the municipality of Sharqiyah and the sheikh of Ras al Hadd have join hands in this campaign.

"It appears as if tourists have been living - and dumping garbage - on the beaches for decades," Emilie observed. A study along the Gulf

of Oman reported densities of marine debris ranging from 0.43

to 6.01 items/m, with a mean of

1.79 items/m. The plastic debris appeared to be of local origin or discarded fishing gear, according to

the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report.

Oman is home to five species

of turtles - Green Sea Turtle, Loggerhead, Olive Ridley, Hawksbill and Leatherback - of which four nest on its soft white sandy beaches. The sultanate's population of Green Sea Turtles is the largest in the Indian Ocean, Ras al Hadd being the biggest nesting site of the species. Every year, close to 800 Green Sea Turtles migrate to Ras al Hadd to lay their eggs in a unique natural phe-

nomenon that sees the creatures swimming in from as far as Australia and Sri Lanka. The nesting is a spectacle attracting environmentalists, nature lovers and tourists in large numbers from all over the world.

What makes the Green Sea Turtle so precious is its abysmal survival rate. Of the several thousand eggs laid every winter, only two in a

thousand hatchlings survive. Fish-ing nets and plastics kill most of them. "These turtles swallow plastic bags mistaking them for jellyfish," Emilie said.

Once hatched, the baby turtles rush to the sea using moonlight as a navigational tool. Reaching the sea is vital for their survival but road lights often blind and misdirect them. "The turtles are frightened by the chaos and commotion of the tourists on these beaches; they flee from the area because of the tourists. Often, we find 150 visitors with just a single guide," Pascal informed.

According to Emilie and Pascal, commercial trawling has also killed some Green Sea Turtles in Oman. The helpless creatures are caught in the nets dragged behind boats. When they are unable to surface, the turtles asphyxiate. The UNEP report cites various factors behind turtle mortality in recent decades - widespread exploitation for eggs, meat and shell, fisheries-related mortality and destruction, degradation of critical habitats and global warming.

Emilie said tourists often flout government regulation prohibiting camping on turtle beaches to avoid disturbing their nocturnal laying and hatching habit. "The car park (for the Ras al Hadd beach) is often packed to capacity after dark with the four-wheel drive vehicles of the tourists. Many of them carry torches and ignore requests for silence. The turtles are often frightened and swim away without laying eggs." According to a report, 41.68 per cent of the turtles - Oman has tagged 23,000 of them - had not laid eggs on the Ras al Hadd beach in 2006. In 2005, 34.67 per cent of the tagged turtles didn't lay eggs on this beach.

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(What makes the Green Sea Turtle so precious is its abysmal survival rate. Of the several thousand eggs laid every winter, only two in a thousand hatchlings survive. Fishing nets and plastics kill most of them. The turtles swallow plastic bags mistaking them for jellyfish)

Green Sea Turtle

Found in tropical and subtropical seas with two distinct populations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

Loggerhead

Grows up to 364kg and 1.1m in length; shell colour is reddish brown and the skin is brown-yellow

Hawksbill

A critically endangered sea turtle species; it has two visible claws in each flipper 

Leatherback

The largest of all living turtles; easily distinguishable from other sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell

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