For the event, several activities to be conducted are Zumba, Walk for a Cause, Thanksgiving Mass and provincial and regional festival dance competition. #pawikanfestival

2018 Pawikan Festival dancers. (Behold Bataan)

MARIVELES, Bataan – In an effort to further promote and protect the sea turtles frequenting the coastal areas of this municipality, the local government unit will celebrate the annual Pawikan Festival on 1 December at the Pawikan Conservation Center in Barangay Nagbalayong, Morong town .

According to Tourism Operations Officer Danica Tigas, the annual event with the theme “Help Save the Pawikan” is not only for the conservation of the marine animal in their area, but to also raise awareness to other coastal areas where sea turtles usually nest.

Tigas also stated that the conservation effort is also a part to promote the tourism programs and activities of the province.

“For the event, several activities will be conducted including Zumba, Walk for a Cause, Thanksgiving Mass, opening program with Hon. Juan Miguel Zubiri, and provincial and regional festival dance competition,” she said.

Tigas added that the Pawikan Festival will also hold an environmental forum and a “Galing Bataan” Trade Fair that will showcase the province’s products.

The festival doesn’t stop when the sun sets. A beach party presenting local artists from Bataan will be held.

According to marine experts, a female sea turtle becomes sexually mature within 15 to 50 years, depending on the species. The female sea turtle will crawl onto a beach, just like the coastal areas in Bataan and Zambales, to lay her eggs at night.

When a sea turtle finds a spot for the nest, she will dig the nest using her rear fins. The nest needs to be deep enough to fit an average of 100 eggs. A female sea turtle will nest multiple times in a season, a week or more apart, but will not return for at least a year or more before she nests again.

These nesting sea turtles will always try to find their way to where they were released, but due to changes in the environment they were released from, they would go to beaches next to sand dunes that are quiet, safe and shaded from the light. This is mainly to the fact that hatchlings emerge at night.

Once hatched, the hatchlings would rely on the light of the moon and stars on the ocean surface to guide them, aside from their smell and magnetic cues. Some hatchlings get disoriented from street lights or buildings and would crawl the wrong way.

According to conservationists, sea turtles have an average of 90 percent hatching success, but only one percent survival rate up to their sexual maturity. They added that one of the biggest enemies of sea turtles is the single use plastic that float around the oceans and seas, usually mistaken for a delicious jellyfish by the sea turtles.