Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Spring 2012 - (Page 62)

FA M I LY T R AV E L TURNING THE TIDE S AVING TH E S EA T U RT L E S IN SA N YA , C HINA, IS A T H R I V IN G M ISSIO N — A ND A F U N FA M I LY AC T IV ITY BY M ATTHEW FO RNEY RESCUE T E AM From top:The author ’s daughter, Alice (left), and volunteer Laura Gross scrub a patient with Sea Turtles 911 founder Frederick Yeh; a boat parked in the floating village; traveling through the floating village to the floating hospital. O Of all the odd traits of sea turtles, the most joyful is that they’re ticklish. My family learns this as Laura Gross, a young American volunteer aboard a ﬂoating turtle hospital off the coast of southern China, hauls one of her patients, a big hawksbill turtle named William Blake, out of his net-bound pool. “When this big guy came in, he was so weak he couldn’t raise his head,” Gross explains as William ﬂaps at the air with his ﬂippers. “We had to keep him in a life jacket until he could lift his head out of the water to breathe.” Gross wiggles her index ﬁnger across William’s neck. “Right here,” she points. William slows his ﬂapping and seems to turn, exposing more of the yellowish green skin behind his head for her to scratch. My daughter, Alice, intrigued, steps forward to rub William’s loose and sensitive skin down where his ﬂipper attaches to his heavy shell. Alice is 13 and was raised as the daughter of a journalist in Beijing, a capital of 16 million people and roughly zero sea turtles, unless you count the ones served in restaurants or pulverized in traditional medicine stores. She’s fascinated by the turtle hospital, and a few minutes later she’s helping brush algae-like growth from William’s shell as Gross keeps up a steady lecture on turtles (their shells pick up vibrations and help them to hear; their heads contain a compass that detects the earth’s magnetic ﬁeld). Sea turtles arrive at the ﬂoating hospital thanks to the local police, who rescue them from poachers. Sea Turtles 911, a small nonproﬁt organization devoted to saving the endangered reptiles, runs the hospital. Only a few paces across in each direction, the hospital sits on buoys at the end of a ﬂoating shantytown built by hundreds of ﬁshermen and their families. Three of the turtles in the hospital’s pools — Oliver, Gopher and Basker — will be released into the sea tonight at The Ritz-Carlton, Sanya, an hour down the coast. Tourism and ﬁshing are about the only industries on this part of Hainan Island, China’s southernmost province, and the area is unfortunately a central node in the illegal sea-turtle trade. 62 W W W. R I T Z C A R LT O N . C O M http://WWW.RITZCARLTON.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Spring 2012

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Spring 2012
Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
President’s Letter
Falling in Love With ... Tokyo
Technology
Design
On the Boulevards
Shopping
Jewelry
Watches
Family Travel
Wellness
Golf
Philadelphia
Culinary
Let Us Stay With You
Heritage

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Spring 2012