Sea turtle watching in Con Dao, Vietnam: huddled around a nest, we see a mother lay dozens of eggs – until something goes wrong

Bay Canh, in the Con Dao archipelago, is considered the most precious sea turtle habitat in Vietnam. Overnight tours allow visitors to watch turtles laying eggs

Seeing the mother turtle sculpt sand over her newly laid clutch with her back flippers is like watching big leather mitts shape clay on a potter’s wheel

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A sea turtle monument on the promenade of Con Son, Con Dao, Vietnam. The archipelago is considered the most abundant sea turtle habitat in Vietnam. Photo: Patrick Scott

Published: 5:30pm, 19 Jul 2020Updated: 3:12pm, 21 Jul 2020

In the dim light of a half-moon, we peer down onto a forest-fringed bay from an overlook at the Con Dao National Park ranger station on Bay Canh islet. Surf is pounding the shore and the setting is framed by clouds in a starry sky and glowing squid trawlers on the horizon.

Bay Canh is ground zero for sea turtle nesting and overnight tours in the 16-island Con Dao archipelago, off Vietnam’s southern tip, and despite the current impossibility of international travel, we number 40: three tour groups and eight volunteers.

“You see that black spot,” says guide Huong Pham, pointing to what looks like a large rock at the water’s edge. “That is one sea turtle coming up.”

It is an unlikely homecoming that has been decades in the making.

A sea turtle emerges from the surf to dig a nest on the beach. Photo: Patrick Scott

Con Dao is known mainly for the penal colony that once stood on the main island, Con Son, and the graveyard in which now-celebrated communist revolutionaries who fought for independence in 19th and 20th centuries are buried.

The islands are also considered, at least in conservation circles, as the most abundant sea turtle habitat in Vietnam – populated by green turtles and some Hawksbill turtles – and one of the most significant sites in Southeast Asia.