Rekawa turtle watch

What happens on the night

You start at the visitor centre by the beach, where a guide explains the rules. Then you wait, and you can watch a film about the project. Meanwhile, the nest protectors (villagers paid to guard the nests) walk the dark beach.

When one of them finds a turtle, the guide leads your group to her. The team keeps back at first, so you usually see her once she has started laying. That is about an hour after she comes ashore. The wait can be one or two hours, or longer. Usually only one turtle is shown, to disturb as few as possible. In the quiet months, if none has come by about 11:30 pm, the watch usually ends.

The guides speak English fairly well, but most nest protectors don’t. There is one toilet (bring toilet paper) and filtered water, but bring your own water too. A small shop sells postcards and crafts made by women from Rekawa, and the money goes to them.

What to wear and bring

• Dark clothes that don’t shine, covering your shoulders and knees.
• Shoes that can get wet: at high tide the sea can reach your feet.
• Insect repellent, and a rain jacket in the rainy months.

Children from abroad pay LKR 1,000 (about US$3). Sri Lankan adults pay LKR 500 (about US$1.50), and Sri Lankan children go free. Pay in cash at the visitor centre: we found nothing about cards. The watch starts at 8:30 pm every night. If you have a question first, the project’s own website lists how to contact them.

When to go, and which turtles

Turtles nest at Rekawa all year. The project calls April to July its high season, with about 5 to 15 turtles a night. From October to January there are often only 1 or 2, so you may wait a long time, or see none. A study from 1996 to 2000 found the most nests from March to July. For the weather month by month, see when to go to Hiriketiya.

Five kinds of sea turtle nest in Sri Lanka, and all five can nest here. But nearly all are green turtles: 97 of every 100 nests in that study.

“Vulnerable” and “Critically Endangered” mean that a kind of animal is at risk of dying out. Green turtles are doing better around the world, but the other four are still at risk. In Sri Lanka, the law strictly protects all five.

The rules on the beach

• No flash, and no white or yellow light, ever. Only the guides use a dim red light. Keep your phone torch off.
• Never touch a turtle, her eggs or a baby turtle.
• Stay with your group and follow the guide. At night you may be on this beach only with the local guides.
• No alcohol, smoking or drugs.
• Keep quiet and keep back. Noise and light can drive turtles away.
• Take all your things and your rubbish home.
• Never ask anyone to show you baby turtles. The project warns that showing babies for tips has become a business here, and that it puts turtles in danger.

On busy nights the group can be big. One travel guide says it reaches about 100 people on some weekend nights. If you can, go on a weekday.

What the law says

Sri Lanka’s Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, as changed in 2009, strictly protects all five sea turtles. Keeping, selling or moving a sea turtle, its meat or its eggs is a crime. The punishment is a fine of LKR 30,000 to 100,000, or 2 to 5 years in prison, or both. To report wildlife crime, call 1995, a government hotline open day and night since November 2025.

Plan your evening

Leave the bay by about 7:15 to 7:30 pm. With the wait and the ride, expect to be back between about 11 pm and 1 am. The road goes through Tangalle, so you could spend the afternoon at the Tangalle beaches first.

Sort out the ride home before you set off:

• Tuk-tuk (a three-wheeler with its driver): about an hour each way. Ask the driver to wait, and agree one price for the whole trip.
• A hotel’s driver, a taxi or a private driver: about 50 minutes each way. Agree the price and the waiting time first.
• A ride app (PickMe or Uber): we found no proof that they find drivers near Rekawa late at night.
• Your own scooter: only with a valid licence and a helmet. The UK government says accidents are frequent, especially at night, and that motorbikes are especially dangerous.
• Bus: buses on the coast road pass the turning to Rekawa, but we found no evening times.

The UK government also notes occasional reports of women being harassed in tuk-tuks at night. There is more on nights and roads in Is Hiriketiya safe?

Who runs the watch

For over 30 years before 1996, villagers collected almost every turtle egg laid on this beach, to eat or to sell. Then, in September 1996, the Turtle Conservation Project began paying the egg collectors to guard the nests instead. It is a non-profit group. The nests were left where the mother laid them, under a steel mesh that kept out dogs, lizards and mongooses.

The nest protectors trained as guides and formed a village group, Nature Friends of Rekawa. Since 2012 the group has run the watch, with the Turtle Conservation Project, and visitors’ fees pay for it. The beach has been a government wildlife sanctuary since 2006. The Department of Wildlife Conservation lists it as a place to watch turtles. A new visitor centre opened in June 2024. On 2 September 2026 the project marked 30 years, and 28 people now earn their living from it.

Turtle tanks and “releases”: why to skip them

Many places on the south coast call themselves turtle hatcheries. In 2010 and 2011, scientists visited all seven in Galle District, further west. Every one was a private business run for visitors’ money. They bought eggs from fishermen and villagers, and kept all their babies in tanks for at least a day. Some kept turtles on show for years.

Why this harms turtles:

• Babies in a tank swim around non-stop. They burn the energy they need at sea. They also lose the dark hours they would use to get away from the shore. In one study, six hours in a tank made them swim more than 12% slower.
• Babies may learn their home beach as they crawl from the nest to the sea. So they should make that trip by themselves.
• Sunset “releases” go against the scientists’ advice. They say babies should go within a day of hatching, at night, between 7 pm and 5 am.

The Department of Wildlife Conservation has started to regulate hatcheries. It issued a circular on them in 2024, and by 2025 it had finished a set of rules for private ones. It also warns of “commercialisation under the guise of conservation”, which means making money while claiming to protect turtles. Some hatcheries do rescue work with its permission. But a place that keeps babies in tanks, or sells you a “release”, is not kind to turtles. At Rekawa you watch wild turtles, and their nests are protected where they are laid.

Turtles near the bay, and Turtle Point

By day, turtles are sometimes seen in the shallows at Hiriketiya itself, one guide says. Travel guides also say green turtles feed by the rocks at Turtle Point. It is a small bay on the Batheegama side of Dikwella, west of Hiriketiya. We could not confirm its exact spot, so we give no directions.

One 2026 guide says people there hand out seaweed so that visitors can feed the turtles. One writer saw people grab turtles’ shells for photos. Please don’t feed them, not even seaweed. A 2021 study filmed fed green turtles in the Bahamas. They crowded into very shallow water, swam up to boats and propellers, and bit each other and sometimes people. Fed turtles can come to depend on people. Marine biologists in Sri Lanka say they disapprove of feeding wild turtles to tame them for tourists.

If you meet a turtle in the sea:

• Stay at least 3 metres away (the US government’s advice), and further if you can.
• Never touch, chase, feed or surround it for a photo. Float still and don’t splash.
• Watch for a few minutes, then let it go on its way.

The sea here has rip currents (strong currents that pull you away from the shore). Two people drowned near Dikwella in late 2025. Read the sea notes in the beach guide before you snorkel.