On a dark beach, a newly hatched turtle pushes hard toward the surf—on Con Dao, an offshore island in southern Vietnam, a green sea turtle hatchlingMore than 35,000 in totalwere hatched and released, as reported on July 25. The hatchery program the luxury resort Six Senses Con Dao and the national park have run since 2018 has reached a milestone. Con Dao, one of the world's leading sea turtle conservation sites, is gaining ground as an ecotourism destination where you don't just watch but stand at the front line of protection.
Started in 2018; Six Senses and the national park have released a cumulative 35,000-plus hatchlings
According to Thanh Nien (July 25), the number of hatchlings released has topped 35,000 in total. The project is run by Six Senses Con Dao andCon Dao National ParkIt began in 2018 through their collaboration, with a hatchery set up on the resort grounds. This is the second turtle-hatching site in the archipelago. Eggs laid in dangerous spots are moved to a safe beach, watched over for about 60 days, then returned to the sea. Its weight comes from being not a one-off event but a steady effort since 2018.
The lighting and traffic controls on Dat Doc Beach behind an 83% hatching success rate
The hatching success rate in recent years is83%reaching a level above the 60–80% often cited as the global average. Dat Doc Beach (1.8 km long), which the resort fronts, sits in the national park's buffer zone, where banning motorized water sports and keeping nighttime lighting to a minimum supports the nesting mother turtles and the hatchlings. Con Dao carries a dark history as a prison island, yet being relatively spared from waves of development left it with a rich marine ecosystem. The steady accumulation of modest efforts—dimming night lights and strictly managing the sands—shows in this figure.
Releases can be seen during the May–December breeding season, with two options: for hotel guests or on public tours
Sea turtle breeding season runs roughlyMay to Decemberwith laying, hatching, and releasing concentrated in this period. Time your visit to match, and your chances of witnessing hatchlings head to the sea go up.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Target | Green sea turtle (green sea turtle) |
| Turtles released | More than 35,000 in total (since 2018) |
| Hatching success rate | 83% in recent years (global average 60–80%) |
| When to see them | Breeding season: May-December |
| Main sites | Dat Doc Beach / nesting sites inside the national park (Bay Canh Island and others) |
There are two ways to see it. One is for guests of Six Senses Con Dao, who can join the release experience held on the resort's beach. The other is a public tour run by the national park, which crosses to Bay Canh Island and other known nesting sites to observe egg-laying and hatching at night. The public tour requires advance booking and depends on the season, the weather and the turtles' condition, so leave some slack in your schedule. We won't cite specific fees we couldn't verify, but both require reservations and following on-site instructions.
Seafood and sea by day, conservation up close by night—the etiquette of an island 410,000 people visit
More than 410,000 people visited Con Dao between January and July 2026, and 141 lodgings (about 2,900 rooms) hosted them at an average 62% occupancy. The more visitors arrive, the more the question of balancing the strain on nature comes to the fore. When watching sea turtles, dim your lights, skip the flash, and keep your distance as the guide instructs—following these manners leads to next year's nesting. This is a place where each traveler's behavior directly determines whether conservation succeeds. The island's appeal isn't only its wildlife. The pleasure of tasting rare seafood cheaply at morning markets and fishing villagesMoon crab and vu nang shellfish: eating Con Dao's rare seafood cheaply at morning markets and fishing villagesand rounded it up. Sea and food by day, sea turtles by night—how you arrange the day makes island time surprisingly full. Trips that get around without spoiling nature are taking shape in many places, such as An Giang's example of enjoying a quarry-turned-lake while protecting it, and one of them isQuarries Turned Jade-Green Lakes: How to Tour Six Scenic Lakes Scattered Across An Giang's Seven Mountainsintroduced it. Con Dao's sea turtles are in the same 'watch while protecting' context.
Only by air and sea; if you're aiming for the breeding season, arrange things early
Con Dao is an offshore island far from the mainland, reachable only by air or sea. By air, the quickest route is a domestic flight to Con Dao Airport from Ho Chi Minh City and elsewhere; by sea, high-speed ferries run from ports in the far south of the mainland. Both flights and seats are limited, so if you want to time your trip to the breeding season from May to December, lock in your airfare and lodging early. Getting around the island is mostly by motorbike taxi or rental, and nighttime turtle-watching typically means traveling in the organizers' vehicles. Boats can be canceled depending on the weather, so it helps to build a spare day into your schedule. Releases and nesting are not guaranteed the very night you arrive. That's exactly why you should enjoy the island's sea and food by day and treat any luck at night as a bonus—go in with that mindset and you're less likely to leave disappointed. A hatching success rate above the global average carries a message as a model that balances conservation and tourism, and the cycle in which a resort invests in conservation and turns that experience into lodging value becomes a reference point for other island resorts too. From this summer through year-end, Con Dao is one of the few destinations where you can practice travel that "watches while protecting."
