Turtles are incredible creatures, and the waters off Diani Beach are a fantastic place to find them. During your dives with Diving the Crab you are likely to spot turtles on many of our sits, especially Galu, which has a famous turtle point, where divers can often see many turtles during a single dive.
With so many turtles living off the Kenyan coast, it is no surprise that the area is important for turtle research and Diving the Crab works with the Local Marine Education Centre to help monitor and protect the turtle population.
Each turtle can be identified by the unique facial scales found on either side of a turtle’s head. These, much like a human fingerprint, don’t change with age and when photographed can be used to help identify individual turtles. To date, the Marine Education Centre have identified 478 Green Sea Turtles and 62 Hawksbill turtles! They also monitored 72 nests across Diani Beach during 2020, ensuring the next generation of turtles has the best start possible.
Whilst it may be easy to tell one turtle from another based on their faces – to know if it is a male or female you need to look at their tail. In the world of turtles’ size does matter, and when trying to figure out the sex of a turtle, the males have much longer tails than the females.
So next time you go diving in Diani, pay close attention to the facial pattern and size of the turtles you encounter!
If you’d like to submit a turtle sighting, please contact the team at marinecenter@thesandskenya.com with the date and location of the sighting and, ideally, a photo.
