Wildlife team cradles green turtle babies from beach to sea

A female turtle lumbers across the beach in Karachi late at night, looking for a place to lay her eggs.

Waiting for her, staff from Sindh Wildlife watch quietly as the green turtle buries a hundred or more eggs in the sand before heading back out into the Arabian Sea.

Because of COVID-19 and movement restrictions, beaches around the world have been more sparsely inhabited by humans since last year.

Sea turtles have taken the opportunity to return to their birthplaces in large numbers, reclaiming the now less-polluted, serene beaches to lay their eggs during the main Septembernovember breeding season.

Green turtles seen on Karachi beaches jumped to 15,000 last year from 8,000-8,500 in 2019, Sindh Wildlife says. Lockdowns ended by the start of this year’s season, but conservation experts still expect a large number of endangered animals to visit.

Among the largest sea turtles and the only herbivores, adult green turtles can weigh more than 90 kg (200 pounds).