Sea Turtles in Pakistan (URDU)

The Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) and the Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) are two of the seven species of sea turtles in the world that nest at the beaches of Pakistan every year. For over a 100 million years of the earth's history, sea turtles have made the oceans their home. They are a species so ancient they have seen the dinosaurs evolve and go extinct. The sandy beaches of Sindh and Baluchistan are important nesting sites for sea turtles. Spending most of their lives in the oceans, adult turtles return to the beach where they were born to lay their eggs. After an incubation period of about two months the youngsters hatch and scramble towards the water. Only one in a thousand survive to adulthood. The main threats to their survival are pollution, loss of nesting and foraging habitats, poaching, predation, being hit by boats and getting caught in fishing nets. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species has classified six of the seven sea turtle species in the world as endangered or critically endangered and forbids their exploitation by international law. In order to celebrate sea turtles and to promote conservation efforts, 2006 was declared as the Year of the Turtle in the Indian Ocean and South-East Asian Region.

In 2008, Sea Turtles was nominated for a 22nd Genesis Award in the Brigitte Bardot International category for "its excellent depiction of the perils facing the endangered sea turtles of Pakistan and the efforts being made to save them". The Genesis Awards are held each year by the Humane Society of the United States to recognize "television, film, music, and other special categories for raising awareness of animal topics".