HotelChatter

Fish Out of Water
Prior to his current post, the 36-year-old Swede studied Hotel and Tourism Management in Switzerland and Australia, and came to Kura Hudaa after being inspired by a trip to the Maldives when he was just 13 years old. Because net-fishing is prohibited in the Maldives, when he returned as an adult, Svensson was thrilled to find that “there is still great diversity and plenty of sea life,” in what he now calls “a great office environment!”

The Marine Discovery Centre
These days, Svensson has his hands full as manager of the resort’s new Marine Discovery Centre and in charge of the Kuda Velaa (which means “Little Turtle”) Protection and Adoption Programme where he works with island communities across the Maldives to increase awareness of turtle conservation and protecting nests from poachers.

“It is crucial to protect sea turtles,” says Svennson, because, “in the Maldives, especially, green turtles are hunted for their meat, despite it being illegal. They also harvest all the eggs of a nest…and the number of nestings have decreased dramatically over the last few years indicating the thorough harvesting that has been conducted over the past decades since it tastes 30-50 years until a green turtle will be mature.”

A Fair Trade
To carry out his work, Svensson travels to local islands in the Baa Atoll to talk to local councils and the general public about the plight of the turtle and to convince them to stop harvesting nests. However, the problem, says Svensson, is, “They know that if they do not take the eggs, someone else will.” So Svensson offers them a different option. “If they protect the nests,” he tells us, “the hotel will sponsor the community with various kinds of social funding for things like buying school books and medical clinic supplies.”

A Sea Turtle Nursery
To protect the eggs he does rescue, Svensson releases the hatchlings at night and past the reef to increase their chances of survival, as well as bringing a few back to Kuda Huraa “to be grown to a certain size in land-based pools and then in a protected lagoon where they will learn to forage for themselves eating sea grass (he also feeds them fish liver, fish meat and jellyfish when he can), before releasing them into the wild after approximately 15 months.” Svensson himself has designed “a circulating system of filtered seawater to the pools which keeps the turtles happy,” he says. It’s a sea turtle nursery!

The resort involves guests by letting them sponsor, adopt and name turtles, funding the costs of working with the communities, feeding the turtles and taking care of them. In return, guests get quarterly updates on their turtle including photographs and growth charts. The resort is even developing a special website for guests to log into after leaving the resort and check in on their baby turtle. Eventually, Svensson plans to introduce another type of sponsorship that covers a GPS monitor on every released turtle.

Guests can participate in turtle-feeding sessions (which is also one of the Kids Club activities), take guided tours of the Marine Discover Centre as the staff develops it, and eventually when the lagoon habitat is opened to guests, they’ll be able to snorkel around and hang out with the turtles (no touching, though!).

Reef Building
In addition to working with the turtles, the Marine Discovery Centre also has a reefscaper program that deploys coral frames along the natural reefs around the resort to help them grown, and conducts research on coral growth and resilience. They also monitor fish and shark populations, collect garbage all over the island, and built a sewage treatment facility.

Spreading the Word
The whole point, says Svensson, is to help tourists “understand the importance of marine protection—the plight of turtles, sharks, dolphins, coral reefs and related ecosystems. We offer a lot of environmental awareness and simple things tourists can do to contribute. If a guest walks away from here with one or two eye-openers as to the fate of the ocean ecosystem and how they may be able to help or spread awareness to friends an family, I will be very happy. The view on environmental issues is slowly changing to the better and we can help spread the word.”

We’re all for that. Especially if it means hanging out with sea turtles next time we’re in the Maldives.

[Photos: Four Seasons Resort Maldives]