The Mandapam forest range has collected 927 sea turtle eggs from eight nests on the stretch between MR Chathiram and Arichamunai on Dhanushkodi seashore on Wednesday .
It is the largest collection of eggs on a single day so far during this season.
Led by forest range officer S. Sathish, turtle watchers and anti-poaching guards were on routine early morning stroll looking for turtle tracks, when they found as many as eight nests of Olive Ridley sea turtles filled with eggs in the stretch.
Six nests had more than 100 eggs and one nest in Arichalmunai had the maximum number of 141 eggs, Mr. Sathish said.
The turtle watchers made the largest collection after collecting 850 eggs from seven nests on Tuesday, he said adding the two-day collection of 1,777 eggs were safely shifted to the hatchery at MR Chathiram.
He said the 2018-19 season, which was supposed to start in the middle of December last began only in the middle of January, apparently due to the repercussion of Gaja cyclone. The range office had so far collected 4,674 eggs from 39 nests.
Stating that the season would last till the middle of April, he hoped to end it with a total collection of more than 20,000 eggs like the last one .
As the hatching of eggs took 60 to 70 days, the first batch of hatchlings of 105 eggs collected on January 14 was expected to be released during the middle of March, he said.
Carcass
Meanwhile, forest personnel found the carcass of a sea turtle washed ashore on Danushkodi seashore and before they could retrieve, it drew back into the sea. The carcass was expected to be washed ashore again, they said.
