Turtles

We visited the Turtle Sanctuary on Saturday afternoon. It is operated by a government agency (Lembaga Perikanan if I’m not mistaken) and located right next to Club Med. Its blue wooden house structure looked unassuming, so I immediately revised my expectations downwards upon our arrival at the place.

Entrance is free, but donations are welcome. Inside the house, we saw exhibits about turtles that land of Malaysian shores. There were some preserved turtles as well which apparently were illegally killed in Borneo some years back. We also saw embryos ranging from 1 week old right up to 6 weeks old.

A little surprise awaited behind the house. There were 3 pools filled with turtles of various sizes and ages. We were particularly interested in the pool located farthest from the house: there were baby turtles inside. We spent quite a long time watching them spreading their fins elegantly to swim in the shallow water. Later on we found out that the turtles that were kept there are for experiments.

A male staff approached us and told us that we were welcome to watch 5 days old baby turtles which were kept in a room at one corner of the house. We followed his direction, and there, in a small container that looked like those Toyogo boxes that you can find in Carrefour, we saw tiny babies swimming and crawling.

A female staff joined us and shared some interesting information:

1. About 3.5 km stretch of the beach behind the house is cordoned off to visitors as it is the site where turtles land to lay their eggs. However, the Sanctuary runs a programme that allows visitors to watch the turtles laying their eggs. Hence, we may visit the beach, accompanied by the Sanctuary staff, when the turtles are laying eggs.
2. May to September is the peak season for the turtles to visit the beach.
3. A turtle spends about 3 hours digging the sand, laying its eggs and then covering the eggs with sand. During this time, the Sanctuary staff would check if the turtles are already tagged during its previous visit to the beach. If they are not, the staff would then tag them. The staff would also measure the size of the turtles.
4. Afterwards, the eggs would be collected and incubated at the Sanctuary.
5. About 2 months later, the hatchlings will come out.
6. The hatchlings would be released to the sea when they are about 1 week old.
   

I pointed to the babies in the container and asked the staff when they would be released to the sea. She informed that they would likely be released that night itself. Upon our expression of interest, she left us to check with her male colleague who would be working that night shift. The male colleague joined us and confirmed that the babies would be released at around 10.30 pm that night and we were invited to watch the event. What a lucky day!

We went back there at around 10 pm and saw that there were a few visitors already sitting in the waiting room. We joined them and watched a video about turtle conservation in Malaysia. I noted an interesting piece of information: that a turtle can lay about 80 eggs each time it comes to the shore.

We saw a chart in the room that recorded the number of turtles laying eggs at the Cherating beach in 2008. We noted that there was an increase throughout the year: from a lowly number of 2 throughout the month of January to a high 60+ in the month of June. On one particular night in June, there were 9 turtles laying eggs at the beach!

It was time to release the babies and we followed the staff to the beach. The beach was dark because the only source of light was from a torchlight held by one staff. One rule that we had to follow was that no torch lights or cameras were allowed so as not to confuse the babies. Apparently the babies followed the light coming from the torch to guide them into the sea.

Once we reached the water, we were told to squat in one straight line facing the water. Then to our surprise, the staff handed a baby turtle to each of us for us to hold and release into the water. The one in DH’s hand eagerly wriggled its fins as if it couldn’t wait to touch the water. However, the one in my hand barely moved and seemed content to seek solace in warmth of my palm. My DD was suitably wide eyed watching the turtles in our hands.

The staff shouted One, Two, Go, and it was time to release the turtles. DH’s baby moved quickly towards the water and soon disappeared from our sight. Mine seemed disoriented; it stayed immobile for some time and only started moving gingerly towards the water when the Sanctuary staff shone light upon it. Once it reached the water, a wave rushed up to the shore and pushed it backwards. And then, it was gone with the receding water.

I had a mixed feeling then, between hope that the turtle will survive the roughness of the sea and concern that it’s too young to face its adversaries. The fact that its mother was out there, perhaps waiting for the baby to join her, added to the mixed feelings. Such is a turtle’s life..

We said our goodbyes and wished the best for the turtles. To our surprise, DD shed a few drops of tears. We asked her why and she said “I miss my baby turtle”. Now, that’s my drama queen. But truthfully, I too was feeling overwhelmed by the experience.

We went back to the waiting room and had a chat with the staff there. We had the option to wait to see the mother turtles laying eggs, but apparently on the previous night, they only came at 3 am! Obviously it wasn’t practical to wait although the room was quite comfortable, given that we had a 5 year-old with us.

We were told that the turtles land at the shore during high tides. This happens to be at around 3am at this time of the year, but it will be earlier (closer to midnight) by August.

So we bid goodbye to the staff and headed back to the hotel. What an amazing experience!

The next morning, we decided to play congkak on a pangkin not far from the beach. It was followed by batik painting which cost us RM15 for a square cloth measuring about 1 ft by 1 ft (a bigger piece costs RM20). DH was still in awe of the experience of the previous night that he insisted that we choose a piece with the motif of baby turtles.

The three of us started painting right away. I was meticulous, but DD had less patience, so she just splattered the paint all over the cloth. Soon she got bored and off she left with DH to the beach. I did some patching up to improve our piece. It didn’t look too good when it was still wet but once it dried up, we found it looking quite acceptable afterall.

We checked out of the hotel at 1pm and headed to Monica Bay for our ‘shopping’. We bought keropok lekor (1 week supply), keropok ikan parang, salted fish, dried anchovies and dried prawns. DH bought some tidbits for his colleagues. I must say though that the fish and anchovies are not as fresh-looking as the ones we found in Lumut.

The journey back to KL took us 4 hours. Aggh, it’s time to get back to the reality and routineness of my life.