Pawikan (Sea Turtle) Sanctuary

Pawikan (Sea Turtle) Sanctuary is located at Brgy. Nagbalayong, Morong, Bataan. We went here last February 2011 because of the fiesta and it is also the hometown of my mother. This sanctuary is a community-based sea turtle conservation program that aims to protect and to propagate the endangered sea turtles. The persons behind this program are former hunters and poachers of sea turtles.

In this sanctuary, they secure the eggs laid by the sea turtles in the shores at night and then put them to a hatchery until they are hatched. Then they will take care of the baby turtles until they are ready to be released back in their original habitat. In the hatchery, the eggs are separated depending on how old they are.

Sea Turtle Egg Hatchery

One of the hatcheries

The caretaker of the sanctuary said that they also take care of sea turtles with disabilities like the turtles shown below:

Blind Sea Turtle

Hunchback Sea Turtle (unable to balance himself/herself)

As we all know, sea turtles are already classified as endangered species. Some of them are declared as "critically" endangered like the Olive Ridley sea turtle, Hawksbill sea turtle, Loggerhead sea turtle, Leatherback sea turtle and the Green turtle.

critically endangered species of sea turtles

Through the efforts of the Sea Turtle Sanctuary in Bataan, the day will come that these sea turtles will not be endangered anymore. We can also do our share especially for those communities that resides in the beach by not hunting these sea creatures and not eating their flesh and their eggs.

Here are some pictures of baby sea turtles that will be released back to their original habitat. 

We should not waste the efforts given by the sanctuary so that in the near future, our childrens and grandchildrens can still see  these creatures in person and not only in books.