Nancy Nais New Straits Times 20 Sep 10;
SEMATAN: It was shortly after 9pm following a downpour in Pulau Talang-Talang Besar when a dark shape was seen making its way up the beach.
Word quickly spread around the island that a turtle was coming to nest.
Lights were switched off and noises reduced to a minimum so that the creature would not be frightened away.
Pulau Talang-Talang Besar is one of Sarawak's turtle islands located within the Talang-Satang National Park, off the coast here, about 100km from Kuching.
For a group of media personnel invited by the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) for an overnight stay on the island in conjunction with the launch of its turtle adoption programme, it was the chance of a lifetime to get up close with one of nature's rarest creatures.
As the turtle was laying its eggs, SFC employees went to work measuring its size and checking it for identification tags.
The turtle was slightly over a metre long and had a tag on each flipper, which means it had nested on the island in the past.
After the turtle had made its way back to the sea, the nest was dug up and the eggs counted and transferred to a hatchery.
"The eggs must be transferred in less than two hours after being laid. Otherwise, they will not have a chance of incubating," said SFC marine biologist, James Bali.
He added that it was necessary for the turtle eggs to be moved to the hatchery because of the high nest density on Pulau Talang-Talang Besar's small beach.
A number of baby turtles, which had hatched during the night, were also released into the sea.
Hatchlings were released either at night, or early in the morning to reduce the threat of predation.
Bali said about 2.86 million hatchlings were released from Sarawak's turtle islands in the past 40 years.
However, only 2,859 of them were expected to have grown into mature turtles because scientists estimated that only one out of every 1,000 hatchlings reached maturity.
"This is why conservation is important as it takes so many hatchlings to produce one mature turtle."
SFC has introduced a turtle adoption programme to spread awareness on turtle conservation and get the nature-loving public actively involved.
Its general manager, Wilfred Landong, said the Sarawak Sea Turtle Volunteer Programme was the first in the world and a unique eco-tourism initiative run by SFC.
Open from May to September, the programme allows volunteers to participate in Sarawak's turtle conservation efforts by spending four days at the turtle conservation station on Pulau Talang-Talang Besar.
"Upon arrival on the island, volunteers are briefed on the conservation programme before being allocated tasks, or areas of responsibility.
"Duties include beach patrols to locate turtle arrivals, monitoring turtle nesting activity, tagging and measuring turtles, transferring eggs to the hatchery, releasing hatchlings, data recording and other on-site conservation activities," Landong said.
However, he added that there were only 12 slots available under the programme, with each slot limited to six people.
He said the minimum cost of participation was RM600 per person for Malaysians and RM1,200 for non- Malaysians, inclusive of food, lodging and transport.
The fee included a RM200 donation for adopting a turtle and participants would receive a certificate with the tag number of their adopted turtle.
Read more: Up close with the turtles http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/23TUR/Article#ixzz101VVyXlG
