Employees of the Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort did a different kind of housekeeping when they cleaned the pools and pens at the Sea Turtle Conservation Center.
General Manager Andre Brulhart led the March 2 field trip for 20 staffers to the Royal Thai Navy-operated center in Sattahip.
Before they got to work, the hotel workers were given the grand tour of the facility, learning its mission and observing how navy personnel care for endangered green and hawksbill turtles.
Centara employees then cleaned pools in the center’s four sections, picked up rubbish and cleaned the nearby beach where juvenile turtles are released into the wild several times a year.
The Sea Turtle Conservation Center was founded 67 years ago and both rescues and raises endangered turtles to restore the population wiped out by overfishing. Eggs regularly are taken from beach nests on nearby Koh Kood and hatched at the center and raised for several months before the young turtles are released into the sea for such occasions as Mother’s and Father’s Day.
Tour groups also are given a small quantity of baby turtles to set free.
The center cares for injured or sick amphibians between 10 and 30 years old that are found in regional seas. They are kept at the center until healthy again, implanted with identification microchips and released back into the wild.
