On November 15th of 2014, a Green turtle nest was found on the island of Moorea… a thing that haven’t happened since 10 years ! … according to the inhabitants of the island…
The last clutch of sea turtle on the island of Moorea happened in 2004, and only few failed attempts have been registered ever sine in 2006, 2008 and early in the year 2014.
A resident of motu Fareone (small island) called us on Saturday 15th of November 2014 to inform that they have found two baby turtles crawling around, partially eaten by ants…
Our Veterinarian Dr Cécile GASPAR came right away on site and found 17 babies badly weakened, some eggs that were outside the nest, either partially hatched, either cracked or still unbroken…86 eggs had been laid in total…
At once the team handed out treatments on hatchlings. The cracked and unbroken eggs were buried again in a protected sandy area ensuring that the conditions were the same as the ones of the original nest; these eggs were monitored 24 hours a day. Natural hatching kept on going at a rate of 3 to 7 hatchlings every morning for 6 days.
In total, such an action generates the survival of 37 juvenile sea turtles thanks to one-week incubation more a close supervision.
The 53 surviving baby turtles were placed under observation into pools at the Turtle Clinic of Te Mana o te Moana in the vicinity of the InterContinental Moorea Resort and Spa. Since the beginning of the foundation 10 years ago, she Sea turtle Clinic has sheltered over 350 turtles in 10 years of existing…
For the 37 of them enough vigorous, it’s time to join in the open ocean with no delay…That’s what happened on the 26th, from the reef in front of motu Fareone where the nest was found. They were released by the school children from the Paopao Elementary school of Moore. This action is as part of the educational program held 
for the 2014-2015 school year, and called “Bula honu, on the path of the marine turtles”. This project consists in having children from French Polynesia and South Pacific to exchange on the sea turtles thematic via a website, to create a charter and organize the journey to Fidji of the referent classeroom, to encounter their friends of the Pacific. We also had the honor of hosting Maud Fontenoy who came for this special occasion to support and contribute with her own Foundation to “Bula honu” educational program.
The 16 other turtles who have not been released yet remain under observation for few more weeks until they regain enough strength to be released…
Te Mana o te Moana likes to thank the inhabitants of motu Fareone for their reactive and efficient action once they found the nest, the volunteers that have been helping in a daily basis to the well-running of the clinic for 10 years now, and the last but not the least we greatly thanks to the InterContinental Resort and Spa Moorea as well as the Mahana Tours Society that provides us a boat everytime a turtle is ready and needs to return to the ocean Thanks also to the Ministry of the Environment …
Click here : to read the entire article on sea turtle babies release
