Thursday 21 March 2013

Turtle 101 Part 1

Turtles Are Nearly As Old As The Dinosaurs



Chelonians and dinosaurs emerged and developed at pretty much the same time, in natural history terms. The oldest known fossil turtle, Odontochylys semitstacea, dates back 220 million years, which means it showed up 23 million years after the earliest known dinosaur relative, Asilisaurus kongwe. That long-extinct ancient turtle had a partial shell covering its belly, but it didn't extend to completely protect its back, like the ones that modern chelonians have, according to National Geographic.

Amazingly, some turtles that existed in the age of the dinosaurs are still around. Pelomedusidae, a family of freshwater turtles native to eastern and southern Africa, first appeared about 120 million years ago. The first tortoises emerged on land at the start of the Tertiary Period 65 million years ago, shortly after the dinosaurs died out in a mass extinction. In the ocean, the oldest surviving species of sea turtles, the Cheloniidae, date back 55 million years, according to the book Turtles of the World.

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Hope Remains in Conserving Malaysia's Three Turtle Species



The Star Online
Tuesday May 8, 2012

It is too late to avert the decline of Malaysian leatherbacks but there is still hope for the three remaining turtle species.
IN RETROSPECT, it is easy to see how the wheels of the Malaysian leatherback turtle’s rapid decline were set in motion long before anyone truly understood the gravity of what was happening.
Once a prime attraction of Malaysia’s burgeoning tourism industry in the 1970s and 80s, leatherback turtle numbers have since declined so much that some scientists say the species has become virtually extinct locally. The species is critically endangered the world over but in Malaysia, the situation is more dire than most.
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) marine biologist Juanita Joseph has dedicated the last decade or so to researching Malaysian turtles, and as much as she would like to believe there is hope, she does not think Malaysian leatherbacks are going to recover.
The living dead: The leatherback is virtually extinct in Malaysia but fortunately, can still be found in other parts of the world, including Costa Rica.

“This is because (most) sea turtles only return to breed at their natal beach. They may travel thousands of miles to reach foraging grounds, crossing transnational borders, but all turtles return to the area where they were born to breed and nest.”
The implication of this is that once the local population of breeding turtles has disappeared, it is gone forever. But convincing locals of this is not easy. There is a common misconception that should turtles disappear from our beach, more can always be brought back from elsewhere.
It took hard data to convince the Terengganu state government, once one of the world’s most significant leatherback hosts, of the need to ban leatherback turtle egg consumption. And eventually, data from studies on population genetics also led to the gazettement of important nesting grounds for a number of other endangered turtle species found in Malaysia.
Communicating the situation’s urgency however, especially to the older generations of states like Kelantan and Terengganu, where turtle eggs have been consumed as a delicacy for centuries, remains notoriously difficult.

Turtle numbers have plunged drastically in Malaysia yet their eggs are still allowed to be sold in markets in Kuala Terengganu

It does not help that turtles lay so many eggs – a female can lay over 100 at a time, and she may repeat this six or nine times a year. Up to a thousand eggs per female each breeding season might seem like an enormous number but this is an evolutionary adaptation to the precipitous journey each hatchling must make during its life cycle – only 85% of those eggs will be viable. And of that, only one in one thousand will survive to adulthood.
Today, with a more comprehensive understanding about the biology, population genetics and behavioural patterns of the species, we can afford a fresh take on how these ancient reptiles have gone from a national icon and worldwide tourist phenomenon to little more than living fossils on Malaysian shores.
The tale of how it happened is worth retelling and must not be forgotten for it illustrates why it is in the interest of everyone that we start saving the other turtle species.

Taking Stock of The Past
Female turtles lay plenty of eggs each season, for a reason – only about 0.001% of hatchlings are likely to make it to adulthood.

Thousands of leatherbacks used to frequent the sleepy shores of Rantau Abang, a small fishing village on the coast of Terengganu. Eggs were aplenty. Hundreds of thousands were buried in scattered clutches across the shore, far more than egg collectors could carry, and plenty for the locals to eat. With road expansion, turtle eggs were soon transported to new markets as far afield as Kuala Lumpur. The eggs became a commodity: prices rose and more collectors started digging them up as egg sales became a lucrative source of income for the under-developed state.
Rantau Abang was soon transformed into one of the world’s most popular tourist locations to spot leatherbacks. Leatherbacks are a sight to behold. Unchanged since an age before the dinosaurs, these ancient reptiles are the turtle-king of superlatives – over 3m in length and weighing as much as 900kg, they are the largest, deepest-diving and most migratory of all sea turtle species.
In Rantau Abang, scenes of large groups of tourists crowding around a single nesting female turtle were commonplace in the 70s and 80s. When the tourists left, the eggs were scooped up for sale. At the same time, a rapidly developing fishing industry led to leatherbacks being caught in nets.
Leatherback eggs laid in Terengganu dropped from 10,000 clutches in 1955 to about 3,000 in the year 1965. In 1999, only 2% of that number was found and by 2002, only three female leatherbacks reportedly landed on Rantau Abang.
Once they realised numbers were dropping, conservationists and the state initiated efforts to protect the turtles. The first Malaysian leatherback hatcheries were established way back in the early 60s.
“At the time, about 4% of eggs in Terengganu were safeguarded against egg collectors,” says Liew Hock Chark, a marine biology lecturer at UMT.
That figure wasn’t enough, however, considering that 0.001% of hatchlings are statistically doomed not to make it to adulthood. Ironically, those early conservation efforts might have inadvertently done more harm than good. It was only in the late 80s that local scientists discovered that turtles undergo environmental sex determination – which means that eggs laid in hot spots on the beach lead to 100% female hatchlings, whilst eggs laid in cooler spots lead to male ones. Prior to this, incubation efforts had not been discriminating the temperature at hatchling sites. In addition to that, development and a decline in beach vegetation had led to a shortage of cooler nesting areas along the coast.
Joseph explains the situation: “Only a handful of female leatherbacks have returned to Rantau Abang to nest in the last few years but none of the incubated clutches contained eggs that actually hatched.” This, she thinks, could be a symptom of man-made distortions in the sex ratio of Malaysian leatherbacks, because reptiles will lay eggs even if they have not been fertilised.
Some say the ban on turtle egg consumption and the establishmentment of Rantau Abang as a turtle sanctuary came too late.
Patrolling the vast area to supervise the ban was difficult, and the Fisheries Department tackled this challenge by tendering egg collection out to locals.
Each vendor was required to sell all the collected eggs to the department for incubation in hatcheries. However, when market prices proved to be more enticing, many eggs ended up being sold for consumption. To make things worse, lights from resorts along the coast and vehicle ridden by sanctuary personnel patrolling the beach are thought to have disorientated the nesting females and hatchlings. Today, the shores of Rantau Abang are as good as barren.
Save the Other Species
While the local breeding population of leatherback might be as good as extinct, there are three other known species of turtle still nesting successfully on Malaysian shores. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, green turtles are endangered, olive Ridleys are vulnerable, and hawksbills are critically endangered.
In Peninsular Malaysia, however, none of these turtle eggs are banned from consumption. At sea, they get entangled in fishing nets and long lines, and starve after swallowing floating plastic bags. The fact that turtle migration is transboundary complicates matters. Green turtles migrate thousands of miles from their breeding ground all over the world, to converge at specific foraging grounds. However these rich beds of sea grass are dwindling due to coastal development.
In addition to all that, turtles are being picked off by poachers. In 2007, the discovery of a shipment containing 397 green and hawksbill turtles aboard a Chinese vessel in the Derawan Archipelago off eastern Kalimantan, shocked the world.
Some think allowing for the collection of eggs at home when there are so many threats to the hatchlings that do manage to survive an ocean full of predators, is ludicrous. Perhaps this is why, earlier this year, World Wildlife Fund Malaysia made fresh calls for the government to amend the Fisheries Act 1985 to ban the eating of all turtle eggs.
Countries hosting breeding populations of turtles might not be able to stop their turtles from being killed beyond their borders but the resilience of local populations that have benefited from a complete ban on turtle egg collection seem to indicate the merits of stemming egg consumption.
Sabah instituted a ban on commercial egg collection 30 years ago and there has since been a threefold increase in its breeding population of green turtles, despite numerous poaching cases in the waters surrounding Borneo.
Conservationists have this message: Turtle egg consumption, though adhered to for centuries, is no longer a sustainable practice. Unless action is taken to protect them now, it does not matter how many turtles are left outside of our national waters – seeing turtles in Peninsular Malaysia could eventually become a distant memory

Saturday 28 April 2012

Do More To Stop Turtle Cruelty

News Straits Times
April 28, 2012



KOTA KINABALU: THE recent discovery of three dead hawksbill turtles minus their shells and with their eyes gouged out at Mantanani Islands, off Kota Belud, has caused concern among tourists, conservationists and tourism authorities.

Although they agreed that the incident was an isolated one, all are in favour of more efforts to be taken to prevent a recurrence.

Marine conservation officer Lionel Aaron Lingam, who was among the first to spot one of the turtles, then barely alive at Mantanani Kecil on April 20, called the incident "shocking".

Lionel was with 20 local and foreign divers and staff of Mari Mari Mantanani Dive Lodge where he works, preparing diving gear at the jetty when he spotted the turtle.

"I asked one of the staff to check on it.

"He told me that the shell was white.

"I then sensed something was wrong.

"The guests were angry and saddened.

"They asked me why such things happen.

"I was lost for words," he said, adding that the turtle died 20 minutes later.

Another hawksbill turtle was spotted by a boatman later in the evening between Mantanani Kecil and Mantanani Besar.

The third turtle was found on Saturday morning.

"I've never come across such incidents.

"It was cruel and I believe it was done by the islanders.

"But there is no proof."

Mantanani Islands comprises of Mantanani Besar which is populated and Mantanani Kecil and Lungisan, which are famed for their dive spots.

Mantanani Kecil is also gazetted as a bird sanctuary.

An avid diver and traveller, Jack Otter, also expressed his anger over the incident after reading about it on the New Straits Times' website.

The 46-year-old Australian believed the practice of killing marine turtles for their shells was isolated, but added that awareness must be instilled among islanders.

He said the authorities should take the matter seriously because marine awareness, especially among the islanders, was still low.

"I understand that it is somehow normal for them, who view it (killing turtles for their meat and shells) as a source of income, because they haven't been educated of their importance.

"For islanders who work with the resort, there is no problem because they are exposed to marine conservation efforts and programmes.

"However, for those who are not directly involved with tourism or the resort, there is a crucial need to change that practice and their perception.

"It's difficult, but it can be done slowly."

Otter also called on the state government to gazette Mantanani Islands as a marine park.

Sabah Tourism Board member Clement Lee had also raised concerns over the cruel treatment, describing the turtles' fate as similar to sharks.

Lee, who is also Borneo Divers Mabul Resort managing director, said he had never encountered such an incident in his 30 years of diving, adding that education was important to begin with.

"I've never seen it in Mabul, or other parts of Sabah.

"What happened is a warning for the authorities to do something about it."

Since 1973, the trade of hawksbill turtles' shells worldwide has been banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

In 1996, Malaysia and the Philippines set up an area to protect turtles in the Sulu Sea.

The Turtle Islands Heritage Protected Area covers three islands in the country and six in the Philippines.

Thursday 26 April 2012

Cruelty To Hawksbill Turtles


Daily Express
Thursday, 26 April 2012

KOTA BELUD: If you were angered by the thought of sharks being caught for their fins and then thrown back into the sea where they ultimately die, read on. There's even more to human cruelty.
Three protected hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys Imbricata) - the majestic creatures you get to see in tourism promotion commercials - were left to die in the waters off the Mantanani islands after their shells were forcibly removed and their eyes punctured to blind them.
The gruesome discovery of the turtles, which can grow up to a metre long and weigh around 80 kilogrammes, was made by staff of a tour operator here on April 20.
Lionel Aaron Lingam, a marine conservation officer with Mari Mari Mantanani Travel and Tour, said this was the first time he had seen something like this at the islands since he started working there.
According to him, their boatman saw a turtle floating towards the dive lodge's jetty around 10.50am and that was when he asked one of his crew members to guide it closer for them to have a look.
"We were all in disbelief as the poor thing which was a female was already very weak after having its shell removed and eyes poked."
"Sadly, the white coloured turtle was dead after 20 minutes," he said, adding that they buried the turtle at Mantanani Kecil.
Another turtle was discovered at about 5pm the same day, floating between Mantanani Besar and Mantanani Kecil.
"The second turtle was smaller and we couldn't identify whether it was male or female," he added.
The third one was spotted in a similar state - minus its shell and eyes blinded - near a jetty at Mantanani Besar.
Lingam said the locals told him that people from the island resort to such cruelty to make souvenirs.
"Unfortunately, we have no evidence to pin-point exactly who had done these cruel acts."
It was learnt that representatives from the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) will be heading here to conduct a post mortem soon while representatives from the Sabah Wildlife Department are being expected on April 26.
The World Conservation Union has classified hawksbill turtles as critically endangered and they are protected under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
It is among the four marine turtles that can be found in Malaysia and the largest population of hawksbills is found in the Turtle Islands of Sabah with an average of 500-600 nests each season.
Other nesting places are in Malaysia are at Malacca, Johore and Terengganu.
They are primarily found in tropical coral reefs and are usually seen resting in caves and ledges in and around these reefs throughout the day.
As a highly migratory species, they inhabit a wide range of habitats, from the open ocean to lagoons and even mangrove swamps in estuaries.
Like other marine turtles, hawksbills are threatened by the loss of nesting and feeding habitats, excessive egg-collection, fishery related mortality, pollution and coastal development.