Around 150 Toyota staff and their families volunteered to help clear up a beach and erect anti-erosion fences in Japan last weekend to help loggerhead turtles.
Omotehama, a beach that runs along the Atsumi Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture, is a well-known spawning site for the turtles.
However, the beach’s ecosystem is in jeopardy as a result of growing coastal erosion. So since April 2011, employees from Toyota’s nearby Tahara Plant and their families have been helping to make and erect erosion-prevention hedges to protect the beach. They also clean the beach and start preparations for welcoming the loggerhead turtles to lay their eggs.
Omotehama is blessed with long stretches of sand reaching down to the sea, a range of beautiful green hills, and other natural features that make this beach the perfect place for loggerhead turtles to lay their eggs, when they come ashore in May. As such, it is the largest spawning site for loggerhead turtles on the Japanese main island of Honshu.
“Today our beaches face many pressing problems,” said Yuji Tanaka, Chief Director of Omotehama Network. “Restoring at least part of the beaches for the turtles is our goal with this project. Although the erosion-prevention hedges are not a permanent solution, it is important to do what we can for the beaches using our own hands. In that sense, it is a valuable activity.”
