Big effort saving small turtles in Sansha

Sea turtles get better protection in Sansha, China's southernmost city, since it established a protection station on Jinqing Island in the Xisha Islands in 2014. More than 2,500 young turtles have been rescued and released into the sea.

Jinqing, located in the northeastern part of the Xisha group, attracts thousands of sea turtles to lay eggs on the beach every year.

"But some of them lay their eggs in low-lying beaches that are easily submerged by seawater," said Guo Yong, head of the turtle protection station, told China Daily in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "After a little sea turtle gets out of the shell, it can hardly survive in the ocean. So the government decided to establish the protection station."

Early this year, about 70 newly hatched green sea turtles were found on the island's beaches and were taken to the protection station.

"It usually takes about half a year for them to grow big enough to be released into the ocean," Guo said.

The station has rescued many turtles since its establishment - about 12 adult turtles so far - including wounded ones and others that were stranded on the beach.

"We have five staff members at the station, and three of them are fishermen that know a lot about the turtles, and how to manage the wounds," Guo said. "The wounded turtles will be treated at our station and usually stay for a month to recover before returning to the sea. All the people on the islands are very supportive."

Sansha, with its more than 280 islands, reefs and undersea atolls, has a fragile ecological environment.

"We set up the protection station to rescue injured sea turtles and also to supervise illegal turtle poaching. It is one important measure for the city to maintain the ecological balance," Guo said.

Xiao Jie, mayor of Sansha, said the city has built up a sewage treatment plant, a garbage collection and transfer station, a marine biological station, a cultural relics protection program, and a marine environmental monitoring station in a series of environmental protection projects since the city was created in 2012.

Xiao pledged to "firmly protect the marine ecological environment, and build a beautiful Sansha", Xinhua reported.

A worker feeds a sea turtle at a protection station in Sansha, Hainan province, in July. Song Guoqiang / For China Daily