Asian University for Women, Chittagong, Bangladesh
#andrea.phillott@auw.edu.bd
Sea turtle eggs in the Indian Ocean and south-east Asia are often collected for incubation in a hatchery to reduce natural and human threats to nests, including poaching, predation, and beach erosion. Hatcheries may be maintained by governmental and non-governmental agencies for protection and/or education and outreach, or to provide income to local communities through ecotourism. To better understand the practices of hatcheries and the contribution to sea turtle conservation, we are conducting a survey to quantify the number of sea turtle hatcheries in this region and determine the location of hatcheries and proximity to nesting beaches, number and species of eggs collected, methods of egg collection and transport, density and depth of nests, and practices of head-starting or holding hatchlings.
Interested persons involved with sea turtle conservation and management of hatcheries in countries throughout the Indian Ocean and south-east Asia are requested to email Dr. Andrea D. Phillott at andrea.phillott@auw. edu.bd to receive a copy of the survey. A summary of results will be published in a later issue of IOTN.
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