The Turtles’ First Cruise Ship

The Conflict Islands Turtle Nursery was opened to the public for the first time on the 21/01/17 when the Pacific Aria visited the Conflict Islands.

Months of hard work by our amazing staff went into constructing the turtle nursery and setting up the open-flow water system.

The morning of the cruise we were up at 6 am putting on the final touches and doing a final check of the Island in preparation for our guests. By 8:15 am all of the staff are ready and waiting for the first tender to arrive at the Jetty, everyone is full of excitement and anticipation for the day ahead.

And then it begins!

Watching a thousand tourists arriving on our quiet little island is always a little surreal, and a lot of fun! Throughout the day we were kept very busy with all the fabulous turtle loving people that came and visited our Nursery. At 2 pm we had our first ever public turtle release! 10 adults and kids got the opportunity to release some of our strongest baby turtles. We walked in a line, each person carrying their turtle, down to the beach (with a few curious looks from other guests!). One by one each person placed their turtle in the water and we watched them swim out in to the big blue ocean!

It was a very special experience, felt by everyone, as we watched our babies swim off in to the wild.

All the money raised at the turtle nursery goes directly towards the running of our turtle conservation program.