Nicole Tan The Star 22 May 10;
IT WAS a momentous event. We were all lined up along the coastline, ready to perform a tiny deed, each of our own, back to nature. A box was laid out in front, and I was handed this little creature, so weak and fragile, flapping its flippers as though ready to take on the world as its own.
A week ago, I spent my weekdays in Club Med Cherating, enjoying the sea breeze and eating away like royalty, when I was handed this small little note that said: “We are the baby turtles born on this beach. Now we have grown up and would need your help to come to release us into the ocean.”
By evening, I was holding a seven-day-old baby green turtle gently between my fingers, afraid of breaking the petite living thing.
My first mental image of the turtles began as a child, no more than seven.
It was this huge poster in an airport, of a leatherback turtle laying its eggs on a beach at night, promoting the wonders of Terrenganu and Malaysia’s beauty to the passengers going in and out of the airport.
For some reason, I was enchanted by it.
The close-up photo of the leatherback turtle print left a profound impression, something about nature performing its miracles was deeply moving.
I was hooked onto the image of that poster, wanting and wishing that one day, my dream of getting up close with a turtle, particularly a leatherback, would come true one day. Even though I didn’t know it was a leatherback turtle back then.
In 2008, I went underwater (with a tank) for the first time in Sipadan. During the dive, I got up close and swam alongside a 1.5 meter green turtle!
I found out there are four species of turtles: Leatherback, Green, Hawksbill and Olive Ridley turtles. They are critically endangered.
So you could imagine my joy of actually swimming with such a rare species.
It’s considered a luxury for countless people in other parts of the world, which many Malaysians take for granted.
I thought I was coming close to realising my dream of encountering the big leatherback — a turtle that could grow up to a length taller than an NBA football player.
Some scientists see it as a modern-day dinosaur.
Leatherback turtles are the world’s largest living sea turtles (longest recorded was three meters), deepest diving reptiles (recorded deeper than 1,200 meters) as well as fastest-moving reptiles (35 km/hr in water) on the planet.
They’re also the only living turtle species of its kind (without a bony hard shell).
Many time I have visualised this image of swimming next to a larger than life century-old turtle.
It’s really difficult not to get excited when you think about it.
However, the latest news was that the leatherback, that Terrenganu was once famous for was extinct.
According to one of the personnel from WWF Malaysia, two years ago two remaining leatherbacks swam off the east coast peninsular towards the South and disappeared.
I actually witnessed a magnificent species disappear during my time in my own country.
And every time I see poachers hunting down these beautiful creatures and illegal egg collectors cutting off their reproductive cycle by making a profit selling turtle eggs, my heart aches.
On the count of three, I released my little baby turtle on the sand, together with 50 of its siblings, they scattered hurriedly to the sea, pushing their flippers and flopping vigorously towards the waves.
I know that out of a hundred eggs each turtle lays, only less than 10% of the hatchlings would survive after returning to the ocean, At any rate, I know I have lent a helping hand, albeit a small one, to nature.
