"It was in 1950 that the area became a ""sea turtle town"".
At the time, food was scarce. A teacher and students of Hiwasa Junior High School found the carcass of a loggerhead turtle, which had been cruelly killed for its meat, on the Ohama beach, and were outraged with tears in their eyes. This should not happen to a sea turtle known as a messenger of the sea! Let's let all of Japan know that we are sea turtles, so that this does not happen ! and junior high school students and teachers launched a sea turtle study group, and began to record the number of times sea turtles lay eggs and research breeding. This was the beginning of the relationship between Hiwasa and sea turtles."

The activities of the Sea Turtle Research Team, which was hard at work, lasted about 10 years.
The results of the research were groundbreaking at the time, leading to various scientific awards from the public. The content was also surprising to sea turtle researchers around the world who learned of it decades later.
Meanwhile,the sea turtles kept in captivity grew solargeandtheresearch of the junior high school students became so well known to the public that many visitors came to the school, which made it impossible for the school to carry out its original activities. The activities of the Sea Turtle Research Team were taken over by the town, and sea turtles will be bred in the town's aquarium.