Today marks World Turtle Day, a particularly important and heartfelt day for Kenya and for the associations that have been working for years to protect this marine animal.
In Watamu in particular, since 1998 there has been one of the most important specialized centers for the protection of sea turtles and their nesting sites.
The "Local Ocean Trust," a nonprofit organization that founded the recovery center, is made up of about fifteen workers who work year-round guarding about fifty nests and taking care of injured or poisoned turtles, then returning them to the sea once they have healed. 
About 2,000 specimens are rescued each year, according to the organization's data. Taking into account that only 15 percent of the animals that arrive at the "hospital" manage to be saved, it is easy to get an idea of how many dying turtles are found every day and rushed to Watamu.
The center is not only concerned with caring for and returning animals to the sea, but also with raising awareness among the local population to respect them, starting right from the education of tomorrow's adults and collaborating, with guided tours and workshops, with as many as 30 elementary school in Kenya. The environmental awareness program also involves 400 fishermen, to whom volunteers explain how dangerous trawls or hooks can be for turtles, and how important they are for the biodiversity and richness of the planet. Of course, pollution being one of the main causes of death for these animals, the center's volunteers also clean the beaches and the sea of garbage, and with bottles, bags and other plastic objects (often found right in the turtles' bellies) they make objects that are then resold to finance the activities of the "hospital."
On the heels of what has been done in Watamu, there are also those in Diani who are working to protect the cute turtles.
At the Diani Turtle Watch, created and carried out by compatriot Luciana Parazzi Basile, in concert with the Kenya Wildlife Service and thanks to partnerships with other foundations and a few smart tourist facilities, there is a special focus on the relocation of eggs laid by green turtles, an endangered species. One of the reasons for the extinction is due to the construction of architectural barriers, walls on the beaches, which do not allow sea turtles to go and lay their eggs away from the pitfalls of the tide and other sea inhabitants who might feed on them. 
Diani Turtle Watch, thanks to the resort "The Sands at Nomad," has arranged two areas where the turtles' eggs, on the recommendation of volunteers who track their laying, are secured. But much of the center's work is devoted to educating school groups and working with those who live and work between beach and sea, such as fishermen and beach operators.
There are 7 species of sea turtles in the world (5 of which breed right in Kenya) and all are endangered: the lute (Dermochelys coriacea), the green or loggerhead turtle (Chelonia mydas), the common turtle (Caretta caretta), the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), the Kemp's turtle (Lepidochelys kempii), the olive turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), and the flatback turtle (Natator depressus).