Maizatul Ranai New Straits Times 30 Aug 12;
CONSERVATION EFFORT: Guests can adopt eggs and release the reptiles back into sea
PORT DICKSON: A BEACH resort here not only played host to human guests, but also to endangered turtles.
For the past three years, Glory Beach Resort had played a key role in helping to save the species by setting up a hatchery.
It rescued turtle eggs found along the seaside here, and had hatched and released 3,200 young hawksbill turtles back into the sea.
Resort general manager Isaac Mohan Raj said the turtle rehabilitation programme was a joint effort with the Malacca Turtle Management Centre and the Negri Sembilan Fisheries Department.
The programme was conceived after the Rantau Abang Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Centre (Tumec) found turtle tracks along the beaches here and the hatchery was built at the resort in June 2010.
"With help of the locals and our guests, we rescue the turtle eggs from poachers and place them at the hatchery. The public response is good and we even have schoolchildren bringing in turtle eggs to our centre."
Following the programme's success with a hatching rate of 74 per cent, Raj said the resort's centre was given the nod to buy 3,000 turtle eggs from Malacca yearly.
The resort had also launched an educational and awareness programme by inviting visitors to adopt an egg and releasing the baby turtles to the sea once they hatch. Raj said they also planned to build a gallery to raise awareness on turtle conservation efforts throughout the country.
"We also hope to put tracking device on the baby turtles so we can track their movements in the ocean," he said.
