ORISSA, India — Curious and interested fishermen watch as a giant turtle, at least 10 feet in diameter, bobs benignly beside their boats. This isn't a scene from a science fiction movie. It's the launch of Greenpeace India's latest, most ambitious campaign to protect the Olive Ridley turtle, part of our international campaign 'Defending our Oceans.' The turtle crowns the top of the Greenpeace vessel, the Sugayatri.
The Greenpeace Sugayatri at sail. The Sugayatri, once a fishing boat, will spend the next three months monitoring the mass nesting season of the Olive Ridley in Orissa, India.
Just a few months ago, the Sugayatri was just another (extremely
dilapidated) fishing boat. A few months and some hard work later,
the boat is completely refitted to handle its new and very
demanding job: to patrol the waters around Orissa's Gahirmatha
Marine Sanctuary, documenting and observing the mass nesting of the
Olive Ridley Turtle, and trying to make this nesting season a
little safer for the Olive Ridley.
The campaign was launched with the Sugayatri's first public
activity: the deploying of buoys to demarcate the boundaries of the
Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary. The beaches of Orissa provide one of
the last nesting grounds of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles in
the world. Every year, between December and April, thousands of
these beautiful creatures come ashore on the beaches of Orissa to
lay their eggs and then return to the sea in a perfectly
orchestrated arribada.
Unfortunately, the populations of the Olive Ridley are
threatened by various factors like trawling, offshore drilling for
oil and gas, and the proposed construction of an industrial port
near the nesting sites. In fact, over 100,000 dead Olive Ridleys
have been washed ashore on the beaches of Orissa in the last decade
alone.
Local fisherfolk frequently do not know when they are within the
sanctuary limits (which is out of bounds for fishing) The
demarcation of the sanctuary is not only a demand of the local
fisherfolk, but also an unfulfilled directive of the Central
Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court of India.
So, on the 16th of January, the Sugayatri sailed gracefully out
of Paradip port and to the nearby fishing village of Kharnasi,
where a flotilla of traditional fishing boats joined us. Also with
us on the boat's maiden voyage was Amala Akkineni, noted actor and
animal rights activist. The sea was filled with colour and sound,
as the boats (all flying the flags of the Turtle Witness Camp)
arranged themselves around the Sugayatri to escort it out onto the
open sea. All overseen, of course, by the giant turtle.
The advanced GPS system on board the Sugayatri, and her skilled
crew, quickly made for the coordinates where the first buoy was to
be dropped. With the whirr of TV news cameras and the click of
camera shutters in the background, the crew lowered the first buoy
into the water, where it floated serenely, the silver reflectors on
the white turtle glinting in the light of the setting sun. Mission
accomplished.
In the days after the launch, the crew of the Sugayatri have
deployed six buoys in all to demarcate the boundaries of the
sanctuary. They have already seen first hand the agony of an Olive
Ridley caught in a gillnet. And they have been instrumental in
saving the lives of several trapped turtles.
If you'd like to be a part of this exciting campaign, or if you
believe you can contribute to it with your time and effort, mail us
at 
Click
here to read about all the work Greenpeace has done to defend our
oceans in the past.
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