Bernama 11 Dec 11;
KUALA TERENGGANU, Dec 11 (Bernama) -- The Terengganu Fisheries Department has released about 66,000 baby turtles to the sea this year.
Its director Zakaria Ismail said the baby turtles were from a total of almost 100,000 eggs that were incubated by the department between March and November this year.
"Most of the turtle eggs were bought by the department together with the World Wildlife Fund, Terengganu," he said when contacted, adding that the hatching programme was to ensure that turtles in Terengganu would not become extinct in future.
According to him, there were now about 115 turtle egg nests where the eggs had not yet hatched, while the department had nine turtle egg incubation and hatching centres including in the islands of Perhentian, Redang and Kapas.
Zakaria said this year had seen the most number of turtle eggs being incubated with 30,660 in Redang Island, followed by Perhentian and Kemaman district with more than 23,800.
He said the department also carried out a sea terrapin hatching programme, with 1,590 baby terrapins produced this year from the 3,577 eggs incubated, mainly in Setiu.
-- BERNAMA
