Liuqiu Island

If I posted this on Facebook it would truly be shameless travel bragging, worse than our usual level of rubbing our best moments in everyone’s faces, but we were just snorkelling  with sea turtles! Green sea turtles to be exact. Taiwan is home to five of the eight species of sea turtles in the world. Many of these endangered beauties live off the island of Liuqiu. 

It was a cloudy day with a bit of drizzle when we took a catamaran over to Liuqiu, or Xiaoliuqiu, where we are spending Christmas Eve.  This coral island has a population of 12,000 on 6.4 square kms of land.  We easily cycled the 14 km road around the island to get our bearings and choose our swimming spots. 

I  wasn’t sure I would go for a dip  yesterday, until Gord popped his head up and told me he had seen a turtle. He continued his snorkelling and saw six more.  I’m a much more cautious swimmer, but I was also able to watch one as it gracefully glided over the sea bottom. 

Today the sun was out and we spent the day hiking through various coral caves around the island and then stopped at a different spot for another wonderful snorkel with turtles, beautiful fish and a variety of coral. Gord also spotted a moray eel and several squid. 

We were never alone. Both spots are now popular dive locations full of tour groups. Tourism is rarely benign. The island  is feeling the effects of excessive tourism, particularly since Covid, and the coral is being seriously threatened. Impressive efforts are being made, however,  to protect the turtles.  I moved away from the turtle as soon as it approached me to try to establish the five meter distance required by law.  The turtles are pretty friendly and don’t act like they mind the attention, but I still feel that my presence is problematic even if I follow the current laws which also prohibits feeding or touching. 

A few tourists have been hunted down by the Taiwan coast guard after their Facebook posts have included pictures or videos of them touching the turtles. Penalties are steep and can run up to 10,000 U.S. dollars, which must be paid before departure from Taiwan. There is a  well reported case of a German teen who posted pictures of himself touching a turtle.  The coastguard  tracked him down and arrested him 10 minutes later, before he had even left the beach. 

Turtles are everywhere here. This afternoon we watched from the shore as eight or nine turtles surfed the waves in the late day light.