The Mother Sea Turtle and Her Foster-Mothers

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A story of mothers in a broader sense — of mother sea turtles, and the "turtle foster-mothers" of Koh Talu

Where Koh Talu's Sea Turtle Conservation Center Began

Mother's Day just passed. Today we want to share a story about mothers — in a broader sense than you might expect.

The story begins on a night more than ten years ago, during this same season. A mother sea turtle slowly crawled from the sea onto a quiet beach on Koh Talu, in the deep dark of night. She dug a hole with her flippers and laid dozens of small white eggs inside, then used her hind legs to bury the nest beneath the sand.

That was the day the Sea Turtle Conservation Center on Koh Talu began. Our mission is to help sea turtle hatchlings survive and return to the wild — a philosophy we call

"Help them survive, raise them up, release them to the sea."

Our center draws knowledge from Thailand's first sea turtle conservation base in the east of the country. What we only recently learned is that the person who started sea turtle conservation in Thailand was a queen — one whom the Thai people lovingly call "mother."

The Compass Every Hatchling Is Born With

If a sea turtle's life story begins the moment they leave the egg and walk down to the sea, then their special gift from birth is a sense that reads the chemistry of the place where they were born. Sea turtles also sense magnetic fields — they carry a built-in compass that can bring them back to the very place they hatched, no matter how far they roam.

Statistically, sea turtles return to lay eggs on the same beach where they were born. They choose a rising tide on a moonless night to crawl ashore, seeking sand that is dark and undisturbed. Slowly, they dig a hole of just the right depth and deposit their small round white eggs. Then they smooth the sand back over the nest until it looks untouched, convinced their young will be safe until the day they emerge.

Step 1: Help Them Survive

Nature is a constant process of selection and struggle for survival. The number of sea turtle eggs has been declining year after year — predated by reptiles that eat eggs, and historically by humans who once treated turtle eggs as food. This is why "help them survive" became step one.

During nesting season, our "turtle foster-mother" team can predict with surprising accuracy the days a mother is likely to come ashore. On those days, we wait patiently and quietly, so the mother can lay her eggs undisturbed.

Then it's the foster-mother team's job to carefully dig up the eggs and move them to a safer nest. We handle them with the utmost care — because turtle embryos attach to the shell soon after being laid, and if an egg is flipped or tilted, the embryo inside can die.

All eggs are reburied in a new nest that mimics the original as closely as possible — same humidity, same exposure to sun — but is safer to monitor. These conditions matter for the embryos' development.

When the day comes for the hatchlings to emerge, they use their beaks to pierce the shell. As the shell breaks, the sand collapses, and the little ones slowly push their way up to the surface and start walking toward the sea.

To simulate their first day in the world as realistically as possible, our team digs a sand trough leading toward the sea. But at the end of that trough is a small shallow pool — a gentle signal to the babies that you've reached the sea.

Step 2: Raise Them Up

Once their simulated birthday is complete, all the hatchlings are moved to a nursery pool to "grow up."

Why not just release them to the sea right away?

Because in the natural life cycle of a sea turtle, once they enter the ocean, they swim frantically into deep water without stopping to rest or eat for 3 to 5 days — surviving only on the yolk they carry from the egg. When the yolk is spent, they float to the surface. These are the most dangerous moments of a turtle's life: only about 3% of hatchlings that walk into the sea on their own survive.

And human disturbance — ocean plastic, discarded fishing nets, boat propellers — has made the odds worse than nature intended. Raising hatchlings in a nursery pool is one way to

increase their survival rate and help the sea turtle population return to balance.

Nursery life is the safest stage, giving every hatchling the time to grow big enough to find their own food and defend themselves against natural predators.

The daily life of a turtle foster-mother means caring for the young until they grow. But being this kind of mother isn't easy: every morning begins with cleaning pools, feeding, and scrubbing shells. Research shows that keeping a turtle's shell clean helps it eat more and grow faster.

Step 3: Release to the Sea

And when the day arrives that the young turtles are big enough to live on their own, it is time for them to make their way out to sea and live their own lives.

At that moment, a mother's work is done.

Be Part of This Story

Koh Talu is one of the nesting beaches of the Hawksbill Sea Turtle — a critically endangered species. The number of nests we find has increased year after year, a sign that the island's ecosystem is still intact enough to let nature recover.

If you'd like to learn about sea turtles with our conservation team in person, we run our Turtle Hero program — a day of becoming a "turtle foster-parent" for children and families, complete with a Turtle Passport that collects stamps from conservation activities.

Koh Talu Island Resort