Destinations known | Tourist-free Koh Samui welcomes back hordes of turtle hatchlings, but pandemic is not all good news for nature
- The natural world is reasserting itself in holiday hotspots during coronavirus-related lockdowns
- But for Asia’s captive animals, the pandemic brings more problems with their keepers unable to feed them
The palm-fringed Thai island of Koh Samui has been a holiday hot spot for decades. Lonely Planet goes so far as to claim that “the most dramatic event in the island’s history was the first foreign tourist foot arriving on Ko Samui’s sands”. That foot is believed to have belonged to a volunteer from the Peace Corps, who sailed in aboard a coconut-trading boat blazing a now well-worn trail, first for intrepid backpackers and later, with the opening of Samui International Airport in 1989, for package tourists.
In 2018, a record 2.7 million travellers visited the 25km-long isle, according to the Bangkok Post. But international arrivals dropped in 2019 as Chinese tourists stayed away, put off by a strong baht, economic fallout from the brewing United States-China trade war and a fatal boat accident the previous year, which damaged the nation’s reputation. This year, with borders closed by the coronavirus pandemic, it is turtles, rather than tourists, that have taken over Koh Samui’s beaches.
In April, green turtle hatchlings emerged from nests on the stretch of sand in front of the Banyan Tree Samui and crawled to the water’s edge. According to the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, it was the first time in six years this had happened.
On June 13, the Bangkok Post reported that sea turtles had returned to Laem Sor beach “for the first time in decades”. After spotting the marine reptiles’ footprints, local residents found 14 nests containing more than 1,000 eggs in total, of which 269 had hatched. When another nest was discovered a few days later, the provincial governor, Wichawut Jinto, told the newspaper: “This is good news for Koh Samui residents and Thais across the country.”
It was a similar story at the Silavadee Pool Spa Resort, which counted a record six Hawksbill turtle nests this year. Speaking to Sky News, resort manager Manuel Lang said, “[The turtles] only go to beaches where it is really quiet and there’s not much pollution, and the last couple of months, since there are no tourists here any more, the turtles have come to our beach even more than before.”