CONSERVATION
At Duli Beach Resort, marine turtle conservation is embedded in our operation. Duli Beach is one of the few places in Palawan where marine turtles come to lay their eggs. The name “Duli” means “female turtle” in the ancient Sanskrit language, making it a fitting name for this beach. The main nesting season runs from November to February. This is when Duli Beach becomes an active nesting ground for marine turtles. With the peak in December and January.
There are three different species of marine turtles nesting on Duli Beach. Namely the Hawksbill turtle, named for their narrow, pointed beak. The Green turtle, named for the usually green fat found beneath its carapace. And the Olive Ridley turtle, which gets its name from the olive green color of its heart shaped shell.
All three marine turtle species migrate long distances between their feeding grounds and nesting beaches. Mature turtles eventually return to the same area where they hatched. In Duli and the surrounding coastline, the Olive Ridley turtle lays the most nests.
Female turtles crawl out of the water and dig a hole in the sand to make their nest. They usually lay their eggs at night because it is cooler and there are fewer predators around. The mother turtle will place the nests above the high-tide line to avoid it to get washed away.
At Duli Beach Resort, we do everything in our power to protect these nests from poachers and animals.
We have trained patrollers who walk the beach at night to locate newly laid nests. We also built dedicated hatcheries to give the eggs the highest level of safety. If you’d like to learn more about our conservation work, please take a look at the WAIF-project we carried out together with WWF in 2023–2024. The Sea Turtles of El Nido booklet we created with them, you can find here.
Over the years of doing conservation work, we co-founded the El Nido Marine Turtle Conservation Network (#ENMTCN). This initiative, we created together with several other businesses in El Nido. The network aims to protect and support the marine turtle population in the area. Members of the network assist one another and regularly share knowledge and data.
The network is officially approved and supported by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). And the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD).
When the nests are carefully relocated to our hatchery, within the first few hours after the mother lays them, the survival rate is at its highest. After approximately 60 days, the eggs begin to hatch. We never know exactly when this will happen. We don’t interfere and let them come up on their own. This is to try to stay as close as possible to Mother Natures way. Hatchlings are released as soon as possible to give them the biggest chance of survival. How often this happens varies per season, some weeks we have multiple or even daily releases, other weeks we have none.
Everyone is welcome to watch a release when it happens, though we do not announce this in advance. There is no such thing as a scheduled release. We don’t delay releases to avoid unnecessary energy loss and stress. All this to keep their survival chances as high as possible.
During the release we try to give as much information as possible. And we ask everyone to follow the guidelines displayed during the release. At the resort we offer the option for people to adopt a nest through a donation. In this way you can help us with our conservation efforts. If you want to know more about this, please contact us.
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