Bernama 16 Jun 11;
KUALA TERENGGANU, June 16 (Bernama) -- The Terengganu Fisheries Department will try this year to monitor the life of turtles after they lay their eggs at beaches in the state although previous attempts to do so had not been very successful.
State Fisheries director Zakaria Ismail said today that the department would again choose a leatherback turtle to place a platform transmitter terminal, traceable via satellite.
He recalled that the last attempt was made in 2010 when such a device was placed on a leatherback turtle named Puteri Rantau Abang.
"We could detect the turtle only twice, and that was when it was behind Kapas Island (in Terengganu) heading north either to Vietnam or the Philippines," Zakaria said.
"This may be because the device got unstuck or the turtle died," he said.
He said the first time the department tried to monitor the turtles was in 2000 in collaboration with Japanese researchers.
This was followed by two more attempts, in 2005 and 2010, involving five turtles, Zakaria said.
Platform transmitter terminals were used, costing about RM20,000 each.
Zakaria said the department did learn however that turtles, after laying their eggs at Terengganu beaches, swam to the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.
-- BERNAMA
