THE Talang-Satang National Park (TSNP) is a nesting ground to about 50 per cent of turtle species found in the world.

The 19,414-hectare park, also known as Sarawak Turtle Islands and gazetted in 1999, includes water bodies within a 4.8km radius of the highest point of each of the islands — Pulau Talang Besar, Pulau Talang Kecil, Pulau Satang Besar and Pular Satang Kecil.

SMALL AND DELICATE: Green sea turtle hatchlings held by a park staff.

Of the seven global turtle species, three — the green, olive ridley and hawksbill — lay their eggs at the park grounds throughout the year. They are also under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of the threatened animals.

In Sarawak, all species of marine turtles (cheloniidae and dermochelyidae) are listed as Total Protected Animal under the Wild Life Protection Ordinance, 1998.

To better understand them, the media were invited for an overnight stay at Pulau Talang Besar recently. On arrival at the sanctuary, the first things we saw were the numerous seashells and dead corrals on the beach. It was an amazing sight.

But by far the most alluring is the sea water — clean with different shades of blue distinguishing the shallowest and the deepest parts.

As lodging for reporters and photographers was limited, tents had to be pitched. The other buildings are for the park office and staff hostels. And to conserve water for cooking and drinking, each person was allowed to shower only once a day.

Before going off to see the turtles landing and nesting on the beach, everyone gathered for a briefing by Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) chief park warden Wilfred Landong on the turtles and “dos and donts” during nesting time.

Among the donts are:

• Entering a turtle beach zone without the park warden’s permission between 6pm to 8am the next day;
• Touching, disturbing or causing injury to turtles;
• Disturbing any turtle nests, sitting or riding on turtles;
• Creating or causing any nuisance that will drive turtles away from the beach and shining or focusing any lights on a turtle beach zone.

The briefing also touched on sea-turtle facts like population trends, threats, conservation strategies and various ordinances to conserve them.

According to Wilfred, in the 1950s, over three million eggs were said to have been laid per year. However, in 1963, the number dropped to fewer than three million, and from1966 to 2006, there were only between 100,000 and 500,000.

Of these figures, 99 per cent came from green turtles while olive ridley and hawksbill contributed less than 10 per cent each.

The drop in nestings was due to the conservation programme being started late … only in 1951. In the absence of a proper audit back then, the number of eggs laid was not properly accounted for.

During the initial period of the programme, only 2.2 percent of the total number of eggs collected annually was conserved. From 1951 to 1975, less than three per cent was incubated while from 1976 to 1979, it was four to eight percent. But between 1980 and 1990, conservation efforts brought about a marked improvement when incubations jumped 20-75 percent. Thereafter (from 1991 to 1998), it rose to 87-94 percent. And from 1999 till now, it has been 100 per cent.

Wilfred said before the Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998 was gazetted, there were no records of hatchlings being released into the wild from 1951 to 1969. From 1969 to 2007, the annual average hatching success rate was 67.84 percent.

“This means a total of 2,858,648 hatchlings have been released from the Sarawak turtle islands in the past 39 years.

“Based on the scientific theory that only one out of 1,000 hatchlings released will reach maturity, it means only 2,859 mature turtles have been produced by the state after a 39-year effort. Thus, more active conservation efforts and strategies are needed,” he stressed.

Wilfred noted that although various conservation ordinances and laws were in place, enforcing them had to be done collectively … by forming working groups with non-government organisations, the private sector and the public.

“To ensure the turtles’ survival, we also need to protect their habitats which include nesting beaches, inter-nesting habitats, epipelagic habitats and feeding grounds.”

He added that the present Sarawak turtle islands had been designated as a turtle sanctuary since 1957 where two nautical miles off the out-most points of the turtle islands were fishery-prohibited areas and no trawlers would want to fish there because their nets would get torn by reef balls planted on the seabed.

According to him, among the steps taken by SFC in sea turtle conservation were creating public awareness through dialogues, talks and slide shows; production and distribution of pamphlets, brochures and posters; holding sea turtle adoption programmes which include adopting a nest and a turtle, and a junior sea turtle camp.

“We are also conducting conservation-related research like nesting behaviours, tagging and nesting, incubation temperature and sex ratio, hatching success, population trends, causes of mortality, satellite tracking to find migratory pathways and feeding grounds and DNA study.”

Wilfred added that, among the threats to turtle conservation were egg exploitation, habitat destruction, pollution, tourism activities, public apathy and inadequate funding for research and conservation.

“Once people have acquired a taste for turtle eggs, there will always be poachers eager to sell. Once the buying stops, the selling stops.”

Working to conserve sea turtles is no easy task based on the testimony from Tonny Ganyai, a staff on the island.

“Our daily routine is from 6pm to 8am and our sleeping times are not fixed, usually around three to four hours only,” he said.

“When a mother turtle comes up the beach, we’ll wait for her to lay and after she leaves, we must work fast to get the eggs to the hatchery.”

He explained the eggs were moved to a different location and incubated between 40 to 65 days before they hatched. After that, the hatchlings would be collected and released into the ocean at night when they were less visible to predators.

Nesting season is not fixed as there are mother turtles coming up to lay eggs everyday although they are less likely to do so during the monsoon. Though it is a lot of hard work, Tonny enjoys doing it due to his interests in marine life.

Aside from conservation efforts, he also does reef cleaning, research on marine life and fresh water fish.