ANECDOTE | EDUCATION
Can Tourists and Turtles Coexist on Kuta Beach?
Studying the work of the Kuta Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center
As part of my PhD, I conducted research in Bali, Indonesia with the Kuta Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center, run by the not-for-profit Bali Sea Turtle Society. The centre is focused on the conservation of the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) on busy Kuta Beach, in the south of the island. Female Olive Ridley turtles nest every year and always return to the beaches where they were born to lay their eggs. On Kuta Beach, these females lay approximately 80 to 120 eggs each per nesting season (March to September), with several thousand eggs being laid each year. The eggs take 45–60 days to develop and hatch naturally between April and October.
As well as being an important site for turtles, Kuta Beach is enormously popular with tourists, who — pre-COVID-19 — visited the beach in their thousands every day. This has led to an ongoing conflict between the desires of tourists and the needs of turtles — the former seeking sun, sand, and relaxation while the latter rely on the site for the propagation of their species.
When I went to Bali to conduct my research, I wanted to examine the operations of the Kuta Beach Sea Turtle…
