We’re a big fan of the Hawksbill Turtle on Treasure Island, not only are they beautiful majestic creatures, synonymous with Fijian culture and history, but they are a vital part of our coral reefs ecosystems. We are lucky that they live and breed here on the island! For over forty years Treasure Island Resort has been an advocate for the protection of Hawksbill Turtles, we were one of the first resorts in the Mamanuca Island group to employ a full-time Environmental Officer and dedicated Environment Team to run our Hawksbill Turtle Conservation Programme, among other projects.  Through this programme we have released hundreds of turtles back into the wild each year; luckily this is something that has caught on with other local resorts now running similar programmes.

Hawksbill Turtle nesting season in Fiji can run from October to June each year, one of the longer nesting seasons for marine turtles. Throughout this nesting season we patrol regularly looking for new nests. Once a nest has been identified we place a small fence around and monitor it, when the eggs hatch we place the hatchlings in one of our turtle ponds where we care for them until they are less vulnerable. We then release the turtles back into the wild in small batches between 6 months and 24 months old.

This conservation approach is known as a Hatchling Headstart Programme, and we are one of the very few resorts in Fiji that have the necessary permits from the Department of Fisheries to keep turtles for conservation purposes. We ensure the turtles have ample opportunity to develop natural behaviors so they are adequately prepared for release. We adopt recognized best practice procedures for this type of programme, and in our release methodology, and consult with experts around the world to ensure the best care for our baby turtles whilst they are with us on Treasure. We submit our data to national and regional databases to contribute to development of more effective conservation strategies.