Page 32 - bon-dia-aruba-20200619

a32 local
Friday 19 June 2020
Superheroes

How many times do our children tell us that dad is their superhero? A
great father is a coach, mentor, soldier, friend and husband. Aruba To-
day has a place in their heart for all dads.

We invite you to send a picture of your father with a small text dedi-
cated to Father’s Day in order for us to create a nice Superhero article
to be published in Aruba Today! Send it to email news@arubatoday.
com or as a message on Facebook Aruba Today.

We also invite you to join us with an ad of your Father’s Day Spe-
cial and we will give you a FREE PR to go with that, published in
print and online! Your ad will reach the local market because Bon
Dia Aruba and Aruba Today come out as one newspaper now.
Note also our Facebook special: 3 days pinned post on Bon Dia
Aruba Facebook for only Afl. 200,00 (> 24.000 likes)!

Please contact our sales department for more details at: +297 597-7801
or email: linda.reijnders@cspnv.comq

Sea turtle conservation by Turtugaruba Foundation

ORANJESTAD ― Turtugaruba was founded on Driekiel (March – September) about 70 hatchlings on the streets, dead, as
September 3rd,2003 by a group of enthusias- • Loggerhead Sea Turtle - Dikkopschildpad - cars drove over them. Thanks to their protection
tic volunteers. Ten years earlier, in 1993, a Sea Cawama (May – September) methods and a lot of time and effort, the vol-
Turtle Recovery Action Plan (STRAP) was intro- • Hawksbill Sea Turtle - Karetschildpad - Caret unteers of Turtugaruba have managed to get
duced in Aruba and the rest of the Caribbean (June – December) this under control. But for a sustainable solution
as an initiative of the United Nations Environ- • Green Turtle - Soepschildpad - Turtuga Blan- there must be less light visible on the beaches
ment Program (UNEP). Tom Barmes, who was co (July-November) and a strict regulation of it. Sea turtles simply
working at DLVV (Deptartment of Agriculture, need dark nesting beaches for their survival. It
Husbandry and Fishery) was one of the writers of There also came a better understanding and is clear that even more coastal development
the STRAP for Aruba, together with Karen Eckert, overview of the biggest threats to the sea tur- would not make the situation better for the sea
director of WIDECAST (Wider Caribbean Sea Tur- tles existence in Aruba and how these problems turtles. Again, more hotel rooms? And even
tle Conservation Network). This is how sea turtle should be tackled. Despite hard work, all those busier beaches? These are choices Aruba has
conservation started on the island following a years, most problems have not really gone to make. Do we want to leave a place for the
plan that is still complied with today. away, but luckily and thanks to the enormous sea turtles? Not only Aruba, but the entire world
efforts from the volunteers, the sea turtles are still needs sea turtles! Sea turtles play a vital role in
Tom formed a group of volunteers around him, here. On Aruba the sea turtles are threatened keeping our oceans healthy.
because nature does not know office hours, with extinction by pollution, driving on dunes
like an organization such as DLVV. This group of and beaches with quads and 4x4’s and the The Green Turtle, for example, keeps the sea
volunteers used the name Widecast Aruba and loss of nesting beaches due to coastal devel- grasses on the bottom of the sea short and
today there are still a few of them active. They opment on behalf of tourism. Because coastal therefore a healthy place for many fish to de-
first started protecting the Leatherback Sea Tur- development comes with artificial light and arti- posit their eggs. The Leatherback, the larg-
tle nests on Palm Beach and Eagle Beach. This ficial light is a mayor issue for sea turtles, mother est turtle of the world, eats mainly jellyfish and
group also investigated which other species of turtle usually comes on shore at night looking for helps maintain the balance between jellyfish
sea turtles use Aruba as their nesting habitat a dark beach to make her nest. However… a and plankton. Despite the threats that exist on
and which beaches are used by them. For a dark beach is hard to find here nowadays. Light Aruba, the turtles still keep coming. That’s why
period of 25 years a study has been conducted causes stress and can result in her returning to today Turtugaruba is especially proud of the
in which every early morning the beach was the sea without laying her eggs. Artificial light volunteers and the many people and orga-
being monitored in which now there is a good causes disorientation for the baby sea turtles nizations of our community that carry a warm
overview of sea turtle nesting activities. (hatchlings). place in their hearts for the sea turtles. All four
species are active now, which means all hands
There are 4 different sea turtle species that vis- They crawl towards artificial light sources (like on deck in the field for us, the volunteers. We
it Aruba to lay their eggs, each with their own streetlights, hotel lights, etc.) and then they strive to keep the sea turtles, our oldest ‘repeat
specific season: don’t find the sea. In the 90’s it was still a com- guests’, always coming back to Aruba and get
• Leatherback Sea Turtle - Lederschildpad - mon occurrence to find a complete nest of the chance to reproduce here.q