It took an initial period of 6 years and harsh confrontations with the mafia of turtle nest looters - but now we have two more additional important islands “under our control”. The entire coastline of the islands of Mataha and Bilangbilangan is now being guarded around the clock by our rangers together with staff of the Nature Protection Agency.
It was mid of March when the first hatchlings emerged from protected nests on those islands! This was of course a celebration day for the TURTLE FOUNDATION.
Based on the first statistical data received from Mataha and Bilangbilangan it is fair to assume that the number of nests built on those two islands together equals approximately the number of nests on the island of Sangalaki which has been protected by the TURTLE FOUNDATION for 6 years now. Therefore the overall number of hatchlings per year could be doubled.
But this is not the end. It is very likely that yet another two turtle islands will be "taken-over" by us in due course. This would probably raise the annual number of hatchlings to over 1 million.
TURTLE FOUNDATION