Captive Green Turtles, Savaii

Travel People

I have recently visited the so called turtle sanctuary on Savaii, Samoa. I have read on various web sites that this is conservation project that has been set up to help increase the population of green turtles in the area. I can safely say that after visiting the place that it is far from a conservation project. The turtles (of which there are around 20) are in a very small lagoon and are fed on papaya, not there staple diet of sea grasses and algae. The worst fact about this so called conservation project is that people are allowed into the lagoon to swim with the turtles. By this they mean go in a play and in some cases try and ride the turtles. I also spoke to a few people living in and around the sanctuary and was informed that there have never been any turtles released back to the sea. I witnessed at least two of the turtle trying to climb out of the lagoon at various times, not the normal behaviour of sea turtle I think you will agree.

Please come back with comments if you have been to this so called attraction or if you have other views on the subject. I will be interested to hear if anyone can backup this place as conservation project.

I did go diving while on Savaii and saw turtles in their natural habitat, this left a better taste in my mouth. There is a dive centre close to the turtle pond at Fagamalo that I can highly recommend and is a much better experience.

We thought it was all a bit off a ripoff as well.
We heard the turtles are actually caught in the sea and taken to the pond, hardly a true conservation effort.
The guy lifted one off the turtles out off the water when our group was there and promptly dropped it when it struggled!!!

This is such an obvious tourist trap that I did not even bother visiting.

I actually did go swimming with the turtles and it was a pretty amazing experience.

The caretaker seemed quite knowledgeable about the turtles and was able to answer a lot of our questions. I remember him saying that they were breeding the turtles at the pond, but that it takes many years for turtles to reach a mature size (they live as long as, or longer than, humans). They were planning on releasing a few of the bigger turtles into the wild within a few years (I was there last year). They hadn't released any turtles into the wild because they hadn't been around long enough to fully raise any turtles (or so they said).

Yes, it certainly is a bit of a tourist trap, but I honestly don't think anyone would go through the trouble of building and maintaining an operation like that just for some tourist revenue. I doubt it would pay for itself, since the conservation project is run by a family. Our "guide" told us that the money from the tourists goes toward upgrading the facilities, buying food (those turtles eat A LOT), etc.

The turtles seemed to be healthy, but the pond was not all that clean. I saw no mistreatment of the animals while I was there, although I was a little shocked that our guide let us swim unattended with the turtles.

To me, the worst part of the whole situation is that the turtles are not afraid of humans since they have contact with them every day. One turtle there was like a cat! It approached us and it would stay right with us as we would stroke it's flippers and head. If this is a conservation project, these people are doing the turtles no favors by exposing them so much to humans, which will be one of their biggest enemies in the wild. So no, people shouldn't be allowed to swim with the animals, but cutting the tourists out of the deal would mean an end to the project - it's a catch-22.

My conclusion is that I don't think it's just a tourist trap, but the family who runs the operation has neither the knowledge nor the resources to make the project truly successful. I have seen many animals abused in many other developing countries, but these turtles seemed to be fairly well taken care of.

Exactly! There is no other funding whatsoever for these projects neither from local nor from international sources. I know four of them here in Samoa. It is not that different from Zoos and similar institutions worldwide. Some species only survive because of that ...

In Malua/Upolu there is a pool at the roadside with plenty of turtles insides. No swimming there but no fee either. The pond belongs to the Theological College and the turtles had originally been bred there as food supply. This is over of course but the college kept the turtles and takes care of them now. Please do not feed them except with raw veggies or fruit!

There is no real need to keep turtles in captivity "till they reach mature size", and as far as I know no way to breed them in conditions like that either.

Any real sea-turtle conservation project (of which there are plenty worldwide) consists of securing nesting beaches and keeping eggs safe till the baby turtles hatch, then releasing them after hatching.
And that's it.
Of course this does not involve having any nice, big tame turtles on hand for tourists to swim with and pay for.

Thank you for the previous replier for writing some sense. I can't believe that anyone would believe that capturing sea turtles and putting them in a pond and feeding them papaya is actually helping to conserve the species!! Please can someone explain to me how are they going to release turtles which have been in captivity for years, fed on fruit and become tame to humans?

With regard to comments made about the experience of swimming with the turtles being amazing. Whilst in Samoa, we saw turtles in the open ocean in a coral garden. This was achieved by getting on a boat and just looking around. Seeing the turtles in their natural environment was absolutely phenomenal and the fact that I couldn’t swim on their backs or feed them papaya fruit was almost the best part about it!

If educated western people cannot see this as being the truth then I really dispair at the chances of changing the Samoan's mentality on conservation. I don't blame the locals for trying to make some money, but I do blame travel companies that advertise this venture and promote it without really checking it out first. I also blame the tourists for falling into this trap ...I'm unfortunately among them and I feel sick to think of it. My mission is to make sure that no-one else will do the same.