A 12-year-old schoolboy in Thailand, Brin Otaisangchi, seeks to make a documentary about his country’s endangered turtles and waits at night near the nest of a leatherback ocean turtle, on a beach in southern Thailand, waiting for dozens of eggs of these endangered marine animals to hatch in the sand.
Otaisangchi is making his documentary about the world’s largest sea turtle, with the help of a non-governmental organization and the Thai National Parks Authority, in a move to educate young people about protecting biodiversity, reports Al-Rai daily.
“I want to educate the people around me and around the world about the history of the ocean leatherback turtle and why it is endangered,” Brin told AFP.
Thailand banned the poaching of leatherback turtle eggs in 1982, while rewarding 200,000 baht ($570) to locals who report a nest like the one Brin watched closely in the moonlight to authorities.
After hours of waiting, marine biologist Heron Kangai is forced to intervene by gently digging in the wet sand to extract 87 live turtles out of 126 eggs laid last year. “The intervention to help the turtles was a good decision, otherwise we would have seen more deaths,” says the scientist from the government’s Marine Biology Center in Phuket, which specializes in the study and protection of sea turtles.
However, Brin, who closely watched the growth of baby turtles on the sand, was disappointed after the scientist’s intervention.
His 10-minute documentary is one of 12 produced by the Environmental and Social Foundation (ESF), in a move to educate young people about the importance of endangered marine animals in Thailand.
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