Finding out about these turtles has been a magical and life changing experience. The turtle isn’t just born on the beach, gets into the water and has a happy life. They’ve got to dodge so many obstacles.

They hatch, then they’re off! They go at 100 miles an hour from the nest into the water, dodging the birds feeding off hatchlings, over the rubbish, past fishing nets and then into the massive waves. It’s incredible they survive, especially when you discover that’s just the beginning of the battle.

The turtles share the same waters as Sri Lanka’s big fishing industry, often becoming trapped underwater in their nets and drowning in less than an hour. As many as 150,000 turtles are thought to be killed each year, and 50,000 in South-East Asia and the South Pacific alone.

Egg poaching has been banned, but still goes on. I watched a man get fined for stealing eggs, and standing in the corner was his pregnant wife and little daughter. They didn’t have any money and it was free food. So you see the other side of it.

The Turtle Conservation Project in Sri Lanka, with the support of the Marine Conservation Society in the UK, has helped the plight of turtles around this wildlife rich but highly populated island. Meeting the boys who had turned from egg stealers into protectors was a really positive experience. If the conservation project hadn’t come to that area, these kids would have been like wild dogs, kicking turtles up the beach and stealing their eggs.

The great thing is it’s not outsiders coming in and telling them they are doing wrong. The conservationists have actually understood the culture, understood the people and let them take ownership of their beach and their animals.