Hon Cau in May, the sea water is clear and blue, each wave is gently lapping against the sand. The southern monsoon season, which lasts from May to October, is also the breeding season for turtles. Hon Cau Marine Reserve is located on a corner of the island, standing here, you can hear the whispers of the waves, the wind and the sea caressing the white sand slopes. Ms. Luu Yen Phi is the only female employee of the Nature Reserve. Hon Cau Sea For many years, she and her brothers and sisters in the group participated in the work of the patrol team to prevent boats from fishing in the reserve. She shared: “In the breeding season, turtles will come up to lay eggs. There are 4-5 turtles on the island or up, so the brothers will divide to watch turtles to avoid people coming to catch them. Turtle eggs will be brought to the beaches. Incubate and observe. From 45 to 60 days, the baby turtles will hatch and be released into the sea.” Being a “midwife” for turtles is a job that needs a lot of love and enthusiasm. The first time from the mainland to the island, Ms. Phi was also “stunned” by the waves crashing on the side of the boat, or her skin was also darkened by the sun and wind of Hon Cau. But for a long time without going to the sea, she felt very “uncomfortable”. Because the smell of the sun, the wind, the passionate smell of Hon Cau sea has created an inseparable taste of life in her. Being a girl, participating in conservation work is somewhat more difficult. There are days when she is on duty on the island, she is alone and walking on the way from the station to the turtle spawning ground at 1 or 2 am. Where there is so much love yêu There are evenings, the whole team like “holding their breath” when following the turtle’s footsteps. The brothers waited for the turtles to lay their eggs and then brought the eggs back to the incubator. During the day, everyone will come together to clean up the trash and clean the sea. Yen Phi confided: “ Every time I go to the island, I feel happy and familiar. Those who buy rough seas, I don’t go to the island, I miss them very much. Unlike the mainland, the “house” on the island is just enough for basic living, eating and resting, not too comfortable. But it is the place to pack so many memories of my years here. The brothers also split up to cook and support each other.” The members of Hon Cau Marine Protected Area all have a lot of love for the sea and for the gentle turtles. “Here, people can live in harmony with nature. The process of caring for and taking care of turtles is also an emotional journey. Around 45 -60 days, when the turtle eggs are about to hatch, cracks will appear on the ground. . I have to gently use medical gloves to put the turtle in the basket. When it reaches adulthood, it will return to the place it was born to continue to reproduce.” Phi said more. Rescue journeys The reason why the group has to maintain the garbage collection at the beach is because there have been many cases of turtles swallowing plastic bags. When in the sea, plastic bags are shaped like strength, so turtles will choke if they eat them. Phi once witnessed turtles eat the wrong straw when pulling out a lot of blood. Or there are days when turtles get caught in fisherman’s nets and are transported to pubs, the group has to rush to “rescue”. She said: “ When I received news that turtles were being sold to pubs, I had to get there as quickly as possible to lobby them to release them. After receiving the turtle, the group will bring it back to the sea to release. For many years, people have been trying to do propaganda to people about the conservation of sea turtles.” Occasionally, the center receives cases of turtles being kept in freshwater for a long time by people. When the issue of conservation of sea turtles became known to many people, they automatically handed over the turtles. Phi shared: “I couldn’t release them into the sea, because they had lost their wild instincts and couldn’t hunt. The group had to release them into a big lake, bring salt water back to the turtles to get used to the salinity every day, and at the same time train them instincts. Depending on the case, from 3 to 6 months or 1 year, we can release them back to the sea.” Volunteers come to Hon Cau island every year There are more heartbreaking cases than when I saw a turtle eating the wrong straw, when I pulled the straw out, I lost a lot of blood. Turtles hitting explosives washed up on the beach, which were not intact or were butchered by people on boats and washed ashore. Experiencing difficulties, hardships and “suffocating” rescue journeys, but Phi and her teammates still maintain this work with enthusiasm. “In order for my children and grandchildren to know what turtles are like in the future. I don’t want them to only know “sea turtles” through books. “, she confided. Before accepting the interview with SAOStar, Phi was also embarrassed many times because “what I do is too small compared to the brothers”. However, we still believe that Phi and her silent dedication have also sketched a beautiful picture of Hon Cau sea, where a team to rescue and protect sea turtles is working day and night with all their heart. .

Hearing the name feels dear, the trip “Going home” is the journey where we can directly release wild animals back to the primeval forest in Cuc Phuong National Park (Ninh Binh). When joining tour , visitors will cross the forest road, admire the pristine scenery and visit some points of the national park. One small note is that tour limited to 15 people at a time, so as not to affect the re-release. Photo: Cuc Phuong National Park. The individuals of wild animals that are released back into the forest can include birds, monkeys, reptiles, wildcats, civets… These are animals that have been captured and rescued from many animal trafficking and transportation cases. illegal wildlife. The program does not charge a service fee, we can contribute voluntary funds to support conservation activities of the national park. “We believe that anyone who witnesses the moment when wild animals are returned to nature, will have a good feeling with nature in general and with wildlife in particular, thereby stimulating to raise awareness and responsibility of each person in protecting wildlife” – Nguyen Van Chinh, Director of Cuc Phuong National Park shared. Boating to pick up trash, discovering Hoi An is different Young people always want to live fully every moment in new lands, both experience and leave their mark by participating in activities aimed at protecting the green planet and healthy environment. Accordingly, the Hoi An travel itinerary will be different and memorable when the teen joins tour rowing boats to pick up trash along the Hoai River area, from Cam Thanh commune to the city. Photo: Phuong Dien. Join tour , we will row the boat ourselves kayak and used a racket to pick up trash on a road about 8 km along Hoai River. To join this tour, foreign tourists have to pay a fee of 10 USD (about 230,000 VND), while domestic tourists are being completely free. Mr. Nguyen Van Long, director of a travel agency in Hoi An, took the lead in implementing tour This particular tour said, currently tours are held on weekends. Photo: Phuong Dien. “I want visitors to share with me to protect the environment of Hoi An, but I don’t think I will profit from this tour. The amount of 10 USD/foreign guest I collect, I use to buy sacks, rent a boat to collect garbage to destroy, hire staff to serve tourists…” – Mr. Long shared. Fly to Con Dao to protect sea turtles One of the travel experiences that many tourists love when coming to Con Dao is visiting Bay Canh Island and watching turtles lay eggs. However, not everyone knows, the most common species of sea turtle in Con Dao National Park – the vich – is currently listed in the Vietnam Red Book. Therefore, the Management Board of Con Dao National Park has coordinated with the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN to bring about efforts to protect this sea turtle. Photo: Khanh Tran. Becoming a volunteer of this program, you will be assigned to many small islands to perform tasks such as following the turtle’s footsteps to mark the egg nest or helping the mother turtle stuck in the roots to return to the sea safely. when crossing land, dig sand to collect eggs and bring them back to the hatchery, record the date of laying – the number of eggs… Not only rescue turtles, the volunteers also help the forest rangers welcome and serve tourists, clean up trash, clean the beach, draw pictures, design billboards to propagate environmental protection messages. environment, protecting nature, preserving sea turtles, contributing to embellishing the island’s space more vividly. Photo: IUCN. “On duty” to rescue turtles right on the beach, so the volunteers also have to get used to the limited use of electricity and water, the phone often loses signal. But what are those obstacles compared to these wonderful experiences, the pride that money can’t buy, right?

Christian Sommer is an extremely hardworking student, so even while on vacation with his girlfriend, this guy doesn’t neglect his studies. For his studies, he dived into the azure waters under the cliffs of Portofino to learn about the marine life here and found a small jellyfish – Turritopsis nutricula (lighthouse jellyfish). This jellyfish is only four to five mm in size, the whole body is transparent, in the middle of their body is a red digestive system like a lamp, so it is called a lighthouse jellyfish. Although lighthouse jellyfish have a very beautiful appearance, due to their small size, people often do not see or notice them. Immediately after observing and discovering, Sommer collected them in a thin mesh bag and placed them in a container of seawater in the hope of bringing them to the refrigerator and turning them into specimens. But that day was a weekend, on the beach there were many interesting games and because of a bit of playing, Christian Sommer forgot to put them in the refrigerator as originally planned. It was not until the next day that Christian Sommer remembered what he had forgotten. When he found the barrel, he took it out to look, but when he looked closely many times, Sommer found nothing inside the net bag but sea water. So what happened? Even though lighthouse jellyfish are so small they can still be seen with the naked eye, why do they completely disappear in just one? Still not believing his eyes, Sommer checked the container a few more times, this time even more surprised, at the bottom of the container there were many tiny things, almost invisible. can see. After many observations and analysis, Sommer realized that these were exactly the polyps of lighthouse jellyfish. Why did Sommer feel so surprised? In fact, lighthouse jellyfish are a species of hydrophyte, and they have two different developmental stages in their life cycle: a polyp (hydroid) stage and a jellyfish development stage. Adult jellyfish will lay eggs and are fertilized in water, after which they retain the fertilized eggs in the female jellyfish until they develop into planula larvae. These planula larvae can swim freely like worms or float under the sea and then sink to the sea floor to form digestive systems and reproduce asexually into polyps; After asexual reproduction is budding, the polyps slowly develop into adult jellyfish and begin a new life cycle. Usually a jellyfish life cycle lasts a few weeks to several months, and they die after laying eggs. But now, the fact that these jellyfish lay eggs, fertilize, become larvae, mature and then turn into polyps within a few days is what makes Sommer extremely surprised. This means that these jellyfish have not disappeared, instead they are rejuvenated like a full-blown rejuvenation. Further research has found that not all lighthouse jellyfish will rejuvenate, their life cycle will still proceed normally. However, when faced with certain adverse conditions such as food scarcity, water temperature changes, sea water decrease in salinity or physical damage and many other adversities, they will fend for themselves. rejuvenate, turn into polyps and begin their life cycle once more. Theoretically, lighthouse jellyfish can reverse its life cycle continuously without limit of times, so it can be said that lighthouse jellyfish is an immortal life form and is also the only species in the world that can such a mechanism of life. Moreover, each time this rejuvenation process is performed, the lighthouse jellyfish can separate into hundreds of different polyps, which means that the current lighthouse jellyfish have “aged” very much. , may even exceed several thousand years old. Therefore, this species is also considered the longest living organism on the planet, if not completely immortal. It is widely believed that lighthouse jellyfish appeared during the Cretaceous period, and if so, lighthouse jellyfish in the ocean have lived for more than 100 million years. The lighthouse jellyfish is actually an invasive species, it originated in the Pacific Ocean and is thought to colonize oceans around the world through ballast water. Due to its small size, and not causing too many adverse reactions to the ecosystem, few people notice its invasiveness.

Living in a riverside village in Van Giang district (Hung Yen), Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy said, the pretend is a specialty only available in the Red River. Their larvae live in water, only surface once a year to molt and then fly to the surface to lay eggs. Close-up of the child pretending to be outside the Red River. (Photo: Van Thanh). According to Ms. Thuy, when she was a child, many children appeared pretending to be, but suddenly about 20 years they disappeared, causing nostalgia for generations of fishing villages. However, about 3 years ago, pretending to appear many times made the people of the fishing village excited to come out and get together to go out and pretend from 3am. “I pretend to only appear once a year around February to March of the lunar calendar and only live about 2 hours. To get rid of it, most of my family had to stay up all night to see if the next day’s situation would pretend or not. If there is, by about 4 am, the pretense will start to float, and the river will be completely flown by about 6am, ”Ms. Thuy said. The child pretends to be a specialty only available in the Red River, which can be purchased at quite high prices. On the day of pretending to appear, dozens of fishing boats with nets attached to the nose of the boat ran along the river. When it is clear, it is also the end of the fake harvest. Because people were brought up from the riverbank, people gathered and bought them all. At the beginning of the crop, the price was high, about 500,000 VND / kg, every day when it was picked up, it was about 300,000 VND / kg. “On average, my family can salvage about 3-5 kg ​​a day, but there is a record day that my house can salvage nearly 40 kg. Bring it to the market, have not yet sold out all. Because it only appears a few days / month, it is necessary to be able to watch it to avoid the end of the season ”, Ms. Thuy said. Nearly 20 years of “losing track”, about 3 years ago, the pretend started to appear again. As the owner of a famous restaurant in Ngoc Thuy, Long Bien (Hanoi), but Van Thanh still goes out and pretends because this is an insect that has attached to the childhood of riverside children like him. At the same time, he used pretend to cook into dishes to serve guests to eat at his restaurant. In order to catch the pretense, fishermen like Thanh had to prepare from 3am, use a fixed net at the nose of the boat and pick them up because they only appeared from 4-6am and disappeared. According to Thanh, there are not every place where there are pretensions, but only at the confluence of the river where there is a lot of soil for them to nest. “Usually it takes a lot of attention to be able to watch the right day of pretending to molt because only 1-2 times a month. After 2 molting, they lay eggs and then die. Eggs hatch into larvae and return to the river bed waiting for the day to be molested on the surface “, Mr. Thanh said. After being processed, the baby becomes a specialty, with the price up to a million VND / kg. After picking up, Mr. Thanh processed many dishes to serve diners such as pretending to braise fish, pretend soup, pretending to roast honey leaves, and pretending to fry eggs … If he can save a lot, he proceeds to preserve it. separate to be used all year. “From the beginning of the crop up to now I have picked up 2 times, each time about 10-20kg. If selling fresh, it is only about 500,000 VND / kg but processed, each kilo can make 4 plates with the price from 200-300,000 VND / plate. So, each kilo of pretense will cost about 1 million dong ”, Mr. Thanh shared. I pretended to be a phytoplankton, after molting, only lived a few hours on the water. According to the book “Ten thousand questions of why”, I pretend to belong to the set of Ephemeral Wings, a set belonging to a group of Palaeoptera, together with the order of Dragonflies, whose scientific name is Ephemeroptera. They are twofold. After the second time, they only have one pair of wings and then live for only a few hours. The longest lifespan of pretending is not more than a week. The larvae of the child pretend to live in the water, after rolling a few times to become the same. When it becomes a coincidence, its body is soft, light emitting, the two antennae on the head are like a dagger, at the end of the abdomen grows 3 tail feathers. In the evening the children pretend to gather, fly over the water to perform mating. After the sex is finished, pretend the female spawns the eggs in the water. The vast majority of them to the next day “deadlock”.