A sea turtle hatchery at Kosgoda

Five species of sea turtle nest on Sri Lanka’s coast — green, olive ridley, hawksbill, loggerhead and leatherback — and all five are threatened. Eggs laid on an open beach are dug up by dogs, monitor lizards and people within hours, which is why hatcheries exist: eggs are bought or collected, reburied in a protected enclosure, and the hatchlings released.

The Kosgoda project, twenty minutes south of Bentota, has been running since 1988.

What a visit involves

Daytime visits show you the hatchery enclosure, the tanks holding injured adults being rehabilitated, and hatchlings from that day’s or the previous night’s emergence. It takes half an hour and a guide explains the species and the threats.

The evening release is the part worth planning around. Around 6.30pm, once the sand has cooled and the birds have gone, that day’s hatchlings are carried down and released at the waterline. They make their own way in, which is important — the crawl down the beach is how they orient themselves.

How to tell a good one from a bad one

This coast has several operations that keep adult turtles in small concrete tanks for years so visitors can lift them for photographs, and describe themselves as conservation projects.

The questions to ask are simple. How long are hatchlings held before release? The answer should be days, not weeks — a hatchling kept in a tank loses the yolk reserve it needs for the swim offshore. Are adults kept permanently? Only injured animals being rehabilitated should be. Can visitors handle the turtles? They should not.

When to go

Nesting happens year-round with peaks between November and April. There are hatchlings to release on most evenings.