The Meridian Port Services Ltd (MPS) sea turtle conservation initiative has been implemented with the firm commitment of the Shareholders, Board of Directors, Management and Workers of MPS and it is in fulfilment of the company’s Environmental Action Plans for Sea Turtle Conservation (No-Net-Loss commitment) and as per the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standard (PS6) for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources.

At Green Terminal Award Ceremony, CEO of MPS, Mr. Mohamed Samara, explained that the Sea Turtles are “air breathing” reptiles that have roamed the Earth’s oceans for the last 110 million years are an important link to marine ecosystems such as coral reefs and seagrass beds. Some sea turtles also eat large numbers of jellyfish and provide a source of income to local communities as a draw for ecotourism. But sea turtle populations have been on the decline. Thousands of marine turtles are accidentally caught by fishing gear each year, and the beaches upon which they depend for nesting are disappearing.

Females use sandy beaches for laying their eggs hence MPS works with local communities to reduce egg harvesting and protect nesting beaches and encourages fishers to switch to turtle-friendly equipment. He further enlightened that the program which commenced in November 2018 involves the safe relocation of turtle eggs at risk in their natural environment into an enclosed Sea Turtle Hatchery replicating natural conditions, creating a conducive atmosphere for them to hatch, and finally releasing the hatchlings into the ocean.

MPS continues to count its success with the turtle hatchery, “Between November 2018 and August 2020, 24,674 eggs were retrieved and brought to hatchery out of which 16,198 hatchlings were successfully released into the sea during this same period. Then again, since the commissioning of a new hatchery at Prampram/New-Ningo back in August 2020 we released 12,083 hatchlings out of the total 14,488 eggs that were incubated in 126 nests with a staggering success rate of 83%”, said Mr. Samara.

Following the Green Terminal Award Ceremony, the MPS Management, invited the visiting delegation from Bolloré Ports and all members of the press for a tour at the sea turtle conservation setup at New-Ningo.

Not only that the Delegation were very much impressed with the Sea Turtle Hatchery setup and more so in interaction with the MPS team that devoted their time and effort to save these magnificent creatures.

A lot of scientific information and facts about the Sea Turtles were disseminated to the crowd after which the MPS management staged a quiz that every member of the visiting delegation had to answer. The number of correct answers was astonishing showing that the participants’ interest in turtle conservation had been increased.

The delegation ended the tour to Ghana with a visit to Legon Gardens, a tropical botanical garden dedicated to eco-tourism to further observe plants and animals in their natural environment.