Hatching Rate of Green Sea Turtle Egys (Chelonia mydas) Using Different Hatching Substrate in the Pawikan Nesting Sanctuary, Brey. Old Poblacion, Maitum, Sarangani Province

The Substrate Experiment for Green Sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) eggs was done during the nesting season, February, in the Pawikan Sanctuary, Brgy. Old Poblacion, Maitum, Sarangani Province. Three substrates were utilized in the experiment namely Natural Sand, Hatchery Sand. and Sterile Sand. There were three replicates for each substrate. The result shows that there is no statistical difference in the hatching success of green turtle eggs among the substrates. However, hatching success was higher in natural and sterile sand as compared to hatchery sand. Other external factors such as temperature and microbial flora were recorded and identified. The highest temperature recorded was in T3R1, 33.90°C + 1.07, and the lowest temperature recorded was in T3R3, 33.17°C + 0.73, both are clutches with sterile sand. The temperature recorded is moderately positively correlated to the hatching success of Green Sea Turtle hatchlings yet is not statistically significant. The study also shows that a large number of colony counts of microorganisms, both bacteria and fungi, are significantly positively correlated to the failure of the hatching success. Those nests which had the lowest hatching success also had the highest number of microbial colony present. The mean length of sea turtle hatchlings in the experiment 1s 6.52 cm. The results show that substrate could contribute to the hatching success of Green Turtle eyes because of the variation of the external factors present in each clutch. Specifically, the microbial flora of every clutch drastically affects the hatching success.