An awareness drive launched by the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park to sensitise the fishing community in the district on conservation of sea turtles appears to have paid rich dividends. So far, the park has collected some 20,000 sea turtle eggs, a records of sort for this region. The conservation project was launched by the Mandapam forest range in 2013-14. As the nesting season draws to a close this year, the range has ended up with an impressive collection: 13,000 eggs. The collection will go on till the end of this month, Mr. S.Sathish, a forest range officer, said. Sea turtles, especially Olive Ridleys, prefer the vast sandy stretch from Adhiramapattinam to Danushkodi falling under the Mandapam range for laying of eggs. The collection was huge this season, thanks to the increased awareness among fisher folk on protecting turtles and eggs, Mr.Deepak S Bilgi, wildlife warden, Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park, said. The forest range roped in Arumbugal Trust’, a Tirunelveli-based NGO, in their efforts to sensitise the fisher folk on the issue. And the programmes were based on folklore. Conservation of sea turtles is important as they feed on jelly fish, resulting in an increase in fish population. And it was heartening to see fishermen release the turtles caught in their fishing nets back into the sea, the wildlife warden added. The Thoothukudi range, which has set up a hatchery at Opilan, has collected more than 6,000 eggs. This season, we are hopeful of releasing 15,000 hatchlings after achieving more than 90% survival rate, Mr Bilgi told The Hindu . As the eggs will be collected till this month-end, the last batch of hatchlings will be released by middle of June. What is more, the Marine National Park proposes to set apart an exclusive fund for sea turtle conservation and collection of eggs next season. It wants to double the number of watchers who survey turtle tracks on the shores and collect the eggs. We will also organise more folklore programmes next year and award fishermen who save the turtles, he added.