{"id":109518,"date":"2026-02-04T08:01:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/?p=109518"},"modified":"2026-02-04T08:01:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:31:37","slug":"museum-of-goa-hosts-turtle-walker-screening-discussion-flags-coastal-threats-to-sea-turtles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/?p=109518","title":{"rendered":"Museum of Goa hosts Turtle Walker screening; discussion flags coastal threats to sea turtles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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~ The discussion that followed the MOG Sunday talk flagged light pollution, fishing nets and urban pressures on turtle nesting along India\u2019s coast.<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
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~ Turtle Walker director Taira Malaney said that conservation must be viewed holistically through a community lens, rather than from an animal-protection perspective alone.<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
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Goa Khabar:<\/b>\u00a0The philosophy of conservation needs to actively involve communities and cannot be reduced to merely protecting animals, according to filmmaker Taira Malaney, whose documentary Turtle Walker was screened as part of a recent MOG Sunday event at the Museum of Goa in Pilerne, attended by members of Jnana Foundation.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Along Goa\u2019s fragile coastline\u2014where nesting beaches intersect with tourism, fishing livelihoods and everyday human presence\u2014sea turtle survival is as much a social question as a scientific one. Drawing from examples in Turtle Walker, director Taira Malaney stressed that community members were central to the documentary\u2019s protagonist, marine biologist Satish Bhaskar\u2019s decades-long surveys. Local communities helped locate nesting sites, navigate difficult terrain and gather field data.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u201cReal conservation needs to involve communities. It cannot be purely about protecting the animal,\u201d she said. These concerns framed an impact-focused screening of the documentary Turtle Walker, hosted by the Museum of Goa (MOG) on Saturday, with participation from Jnana Foundation members, followed by an audience interaction with Malaney and creative producer Saif Khan.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The film documents Bhaskar\u2019s extensive surveys of sea turtle nesting beaches along India\u2019s coastline and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, undertaken largely from the late 1970s onwards. His work led to the identification of several previously undocumented nesting sites and laid the foundation for long-term sea turtle conservation efforts in the country.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Responding to questions from the audience, Malaney spoke about the pressures sea turtles face along more urbanised coastlines, beginning with artificial lighting.<\/span>\u00a0\u201cWhen hatchlings emerge, they use the light of the moon to find their way back to the sea,\u201d she said, explaining that streetlights and beachfront illumination often cause hatchlings to move inland instead, significantly increasing mortality.\u00a0She added that human activity along developed beaches further disrupts nesting behaviour.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u201cNoise, crowds and daytime activity can easily dissuade adult turtles from nesting, and they often return to the sea without laying eggs,\u201d Malaney said. In such environments, she noted, hatchlings also face threats from stray dogs and poaching, which are not natural predators.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Malaney also referred to fishing-related risks, noting that turtles are often caught in nets while mating offshore. She said that turtle exclusion devices (TEDs), which allow turtles to escape from fishing nets, do exist, but added that \u201ctheir implementation in India is still uncertain and uneven.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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She further referred to conservation measures currently in place along the state\u2019s coastline, citing hatcheries managed by the Forest Department at beaches such as Morjim, Agonda and Galgibag. \u201cNests are often relocated to protected areas to reduce losses from human disturbance and predation,\u201d she explained.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Creative Producer Saif Khan said the film was developed alongside an impact campaign aimed at extending engagement beyond screenings. \u201cStorytelling can have an impact at multiple levels, but it needs to be combined with on-ground work,\u201d he said. Khan outlined initiatives supported by the campaign, including assistance to marine mammal stranding networks in Goa and Karnataka, marine conservation education programmes and efforts to address threats such as abandoned fishing nets.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Further screenings and outreach activities are planned as part of the film\u2019s ongoing impact campaign, which runs alongside its public screening sessions and festival circuit.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 ~ The discussion that followed the MOG Sunday talk flagged light pollution, fishing nets and urban pressures on turtle nesting along India\u2019s coast. \u00a0 ~ Turtle Walker director Taira Malaney said that conservation must be viewed holistically through a community lens, rather than from an animal-protection perspective alone. \u00a0 Goa Khabar:\u00a0The philosophy of conservation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25169,"featured_media":109519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155,6],"tags":[3794],"class_list":["post-109518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-155","category-6","tag-featured"],"read":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109520,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109518\/revisions\/109520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/109519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}