"Brother" King and the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary in the Grenadines

One of the best parts of traveling is meeting people that make a difference and Orton “Brother” King is one of the best. “Brother” King runs the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary on Bequia Island in the Grenadines. Hawksbill sea turtles have a survival rate of one in a thousand and are dangerously going extinct. Brother King works hard at changing the odds and has been doing so for the last twelve years. In his salt water ponds he takes collected hatchlings and raises them up for release. They start out eating canned tuna fish then move on to small fish. At age three they are released back into the sea, over 2000 have been released. Brother marks his turtles with a hole in the back of the shell and his babies are found all over the Grenadines. Standing by the largest pool I was amazed at how friendly a hawksbill can be, they loved having their shells lightly scratched. It is quite obvious that this man loves his cause, check his site and see how you can help.