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Published: February 15th 2009
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Bali Blog 3 - Pemuteran
OK - remember one of the hotels we stayed at had its own Elephant, well I can now beat that! The bungalows we stayed at in Reef Seen, Pemuteran Bay had its own turtle, Boomer! Reef Seen look after turtles and have their own hatchery. When the fisherman go out fishing they sometimes find turtles or their eggs, which they can now sell to Reef Seen for a fairly good price. Also if the eggs are found on the beach, they take them and bury them in a pen fuul of sand. As the turtles hatch they dig their way to the surface, and someone puts them in some water , and they are fed on baby silverfish, until they are 3 months old. This is the age when they are released into the wild.
Now earlier we said that the Reef Seen had its own turtle (Boomer) Boomer was the last of the first clutch of eggs to hatch, and as soon as they let him go he came straight back again!. He has now been released 5 times but keeps coming back!! Boomer is now 16 years old. His type of turtle
Whale Shark video
This was taken by the wonderful Stefan from Hungary, who was a fabulous photographer.....he was just behind us when the whaleshark appeared, we could have touched it!!! (green back) can live up to 200 years old.
The next clutch of eggs was not due to hatch for another month - BUT they hatched early and we were lucky enough to see them! They are possibly the second generation of turtle of Reef Seen turtles. This is possible one of the ones that hatched 16 years ago that has come back to the beach to lay eggs. Some of the people from the village came to see the newborn turtles and were very excited.
But the best part was that Oli and I got to sponsor, name and release our own turtle - so we did it for Ysgol Y Traeth. Turtles in the the wild have a 1:1000 chance of survival, but those released have a chance of 1:10 to 1:100. Check out the videos of Oliver and I releasing Mr. Myfyr. (Sorry Mr. Myfyr, but we thought your name was the best for the turtle!!!!)
Oh - but another best bit was when we went diving, and saw ….a.......WHALESHARK!! Mum and Dad saw it when they were diving, and it's a really big deal to see one. It was 5m long! Heavier than
Reef Seen we love you!!
The brilliant Chris with his children Catherine and Lee. Chris has been working for years and years to save the coral and the turtles..... Harvey our campervan - but luckily for us it only eats plankton. (But I have a feeling thats what we look like to him).
Today I went snorkelling in the sea for the first time in my life. The colour of the coral reef was amazing. I saw clown fish, parrot fish, baby trigger fish, angel fish long stringy starfsh, stone fish (stones with eyes!) ….and much much more. The coral was lovely, the reality of ACTUALLY SEEING IT, after seeing it on telly. I think the that place I choose to snorkel was one of the best because Reef Seen are restoring the reefs and look after the coral very well. The y encourage the reef to grow more quickly by sending tiny waves of electricity from solar panels across the reef.
Oli says:
The whale shark was big, I saw it on the underwater huge camera. Boomer was big, you can make Boomer dance by scratching his shell. He shows off by blowing water through his nose. When we went diving, when we came back there were 62 more babies. On the next dive another older baby turtle was found in the fishermans nets. I tried
Boomer
Released 5 times, he just keeps coming back!!! having a go on dads diving gear - so did Hannah. The people at Reef Seen were very nice.
Next bit:
We met Vikky and Stephan from Hungary, with Eshor and Morti their young boys aged 3 and 4 months.. We also met Jim and Wendy from Canada, who were really really nice, and came with us on the boat trip to Mengjangan Island, where we saw the whaleshark.....and I went snorkelling.
Mum hasn't stopped smiling since the whaleshark encounter.
We are now in Ubud, more from their in our next blog. The pictures are of Reef Seen, the peoiple we met and of course the WHALESHARK!
Thanks again for all you wonderful messages, it's really interesting to read your comments, and we can't wait to see them each time we open the blog.
Mae'n na aelod newydd yn ysgol y Traed, enw o ydy Mr. Myfyr (yr ail). Rhywan mae Mr. Myfyr yn nofio yn y mor rhiwle rhwung Bali a Javi - pob lwc iddo fo.
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Sarah, Dan and Cerys
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Brilliant Bali....!
Wow! That all sounds amazing, we are sooooo jealous! Love you all, keep writing xxxxxx