Monday, December 9, 2019

Goa's Morjim Sea Turtle Festival educates and sensitises stakeholders on significance of turtle nesting beach

Prakash Kamat
Panaji, December 10-Morjim Sea Turtle Festival 2019-2020, which began on November 28 2019 will continue till February 28 2020.

The Sea Turtle Festival is an awareness and outreach project by Mumbai-based Sagarshakti- Coastal and Marine research division of Vanashakti and the Goa Forest Department,in Morjim coastal village of North Goa, which prides of a fertile nesting beach for Sea Turtles.
"The festival’s end deliverable is to connect the stakeholders, locals and visitors on the beach to the prevalent importance and significance of a turtle nesting beach,"says Sarita Fernandes,co-ordinator.

The festival includes workshops on sea turtle habitat, their nesting behaviours on Morjim and other turtle nesting beaches of Goa and awareness on the on-ground conservation efforts in Morjim's nesting site.
The festival also includes screenings of sea-turtle nesting and hatching documentations and interactive sessions with tourists and like-minded souls who wish to contribute through their participation to the awareness of this marvellous marine wildlife on Morjim Beach.
Beach clean ups involving local schools and communities in the surrounding villages are organised every weekend as part of the outreach drive.

WORKSHOPS
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Goa, Subhashchandra, Range Forest Officer Vuvek Gaonkar and others have addressed the participants at a workshop, Morjim Turtle Festival 2019.
Workshops for the month of December are set into four themes of sea turtle conservation.
Week 1: Marine wildlife documentary week where filmmaker Gautam Pandey screened a short film on baby hatchlings and drift nets and conducted a session on the journey of documenting sea turtles and aiding in it’s conservation in India.
Week 2: Marine wildlife advocacy week where Mr. Stalin Dayanand would be sharing his insights on marine wildlife habitat and species conservation in India under policy and law.
Week 3: Sustainable tourism and Conservation, where we would be spending the week along with school children, responsible tourists, activists and locals to aid us in conducting sensitisation sessions on single-use plastic pollution, sound-light pollution and vehicular disturbances with the 11 beach shacks the turtle nesting beach shares.
Week 4: Challenges of Sea Turtle Conservation in Morjim and the journey so far by Sarita Fernandes. The workshop will be addressing the importance of making oneself aware of the existence of a turtle nesting beach and the global importance and significance such a biodiverse coastal area has and how one can contribute even in the smallest possible way to conservation.
BEACH CLEAN-UPS
Beach clean ups are held every weekend for three months of the festival. The presence of
single-use plastic is staggeringly high in the olive ridley nesting site along with non-degradable ghost-drift nets that are a serious threat to mother turtles and hatchlings nesting and hatching from the beach(eom)



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