The Antique Provincial Board approved a resolution urging the protection of the nesting area of sea turtles during their regular session on Monday.

Board Member Karmila Dimamay, vice chairperson of the committee on environment who introduced the resolution, said there is a need to protect the Madrangca Beach in San Jose de Buenavista, which has been a nesting place for sea turtles for decades.

Dimamay said the ongoing expansion of the esplanade in the area threatens the place of sea turtles.

“I am urging the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to come up with a mechanism for the protection of the sea turtle nesting area,” she said.

She said that sea turtles are a significant part of the environment and critical to the health of the marine ecosystem.

“Sea turtles are unique; it takes 20 -30 years for them to mature and lay eggs,” she said, adding that one of their special features is that they always return to the area where they were born.

San Jose de Buenavista Municipal ENRO Madelyn Pagunsan said the nesting time for sea turtles is from June to October.

“Last June 29, there was one sea turtle that laid 98 eggs in the nesting area,” she said.

They failed to count the eggs of another sea turtle that laid eggs on July 9.

The municipal ENRO and the PENRO manage the Pawikan Center, established in 2021 in Madrangca Beach.

Pagunsan added that only in May they released to the sea four turtles that underwent rehabilitation at the center.

She said the resolution, authored by Dimamay, is necessary to protect the nesting area of sea turtles. (PNA)