Life at sea for KL-bred turtles

Sean Augustin, New Straits Times 15 Jul 08;

KUALA TERENGGANU: The green turtles carefully threaded their way down the beach before racing out to sea. Some were a little disoriented but not surprising, since it was their first experience in open waters.

The twelve 2-year-olds were raised in captivity at Aquaria KLCC, in Kuala Lumpur, along with 18 others, including hawksbill turtles, under a headstart project in 2006.

The marine turtle conservation project, called Turtles Can Fly, was developed by Aquaria KLCC and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), with the BodyShop and Media Prima as official partners.

Aquaria KLCC managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Simon Foong said the project was to study the effects of raising turtles in captivity for the first two years.

"Will the turtles return to the same island where they were released? It is known they return to the beaches where they hatched. If this experiment works, we will consider releasing turtles at other sites, especially where there used to be recorded landings," he said after releasing the first batch of turtles in Chagar Hutang on Pulau Redang recently.

He said the next course of action would be determined by the data from the first batch of turtles. The next phase of the project is the satellite tracking of green turtles.

Foong also handed RM50,000 worth of Ultrasonic and American veterinary identification devices to UMT, used to track and identify turtles.

UMT Turtle and rehabilitation group project leader Professor Chan Eng Heng said: "Raising awareness of turtles is one of the most important aspects of conservation. People need to know what they need to protect.

"We will be distributing posters of turtles at dive centres so when divers spot them, they can report to us. This way, we will have an idea of where they are and how long they remain in the vicinity."