Beloit College Magazine
Beloit College Magazine
Fall 2000 Contents
Departments
Features
- Underwater Archaeology
- Hearing the Meanings of Words
- Kerouac for Grown-ups
- A Race to the Starting Line
- "Don't rain! Don't rain!"
- Taking Theatre to the Streets
- Beloit in Africa
- A Paintbrush at the Front
- Saving the Turtles
Contact Us:
Beloit College Magazine
700 College Street
Beloit, WI 53511-5595
608-363-2215 | 608-363-2870 FAX: 608-363-2615
belmag@beloit.edu
Earlier this year, I took advantage of a break between jobs to attend STOP, which is run
by the Sea Turtle Research Unit (SEATRU) of the University College Terengganu, Malaysia.
Located on the Chagar Hutang beach on the tropical Redang Island, the unit is devoted to
conservation-related research on sea turtles, especially the green turtle
(Chelonia mydas), the dominant species nesting at the Chagar Hutang beach.
STOP members pay a nominal sum for the opportunity to participate in a week-long volunteer
program to gain hands-on experience in conservation efforts on behalf of the green turtle.
The objective: to raise much needed funding and to make the public aware of efforts to
save the animals. The program operates between April and October, and those who cannot
attend can adopt either a turtle or a nest.
Each week, up to six volunteers are accepted into the program. From a variety of nations,
some come with friends, colleagues, or family. The program has also attracted the attention
of television networks—NHK of Japan and the Fox Family Channel both filmed documentaries
about this program last year.
Redang Island is a thrilling 15-minute speedboat ride from the nearest hotel resort. There
is no road access into the hatching beach. The isolated location restricts access to
outsiders and protects the nesting turtles.
The facilities at base camp are basic but adequate: a few wooden huts, kitchen, work and
rest areas, toilets, and an open-top bath with running water. There is no electricity,
though its lack became a non-issue. During the day, the weather is bright and breezy;
trees and vegetation provide shade. At night, oil lamps light the base camp area.
During the program, everyone helped with cooking and washing up, working in the small plot
of fresh vegetables, and cleaning up the beach. We also patrolled to prevent monitor
lizards and ghost crabs from attacking the nests scattered throughout the beach. Eggs are
hatched in situ, not artificially in an enclosure.
There’s adequate leisure time during the day to go trekking in the forests, or snorkeling
and scuba diving. In fact, one is able to swim among whole colonies of rainbow colored
fish in the sea off the beach (also called Turtle Bay). You may even catch a glimpse of
the turtles swimming or mating underwater.
At dusk, we took our sleeping bags to the beach to await the turtles’ arrival. We listened
to old turtle tales and legends against a spectacle of shooting stars and satellites
crisscrossing the starry skies. Most nights we slept on the beach; it was cool and serene.
During my stay, there were an average of two to six egg-layings every night. On my first
night, one of the staff members spotted a turtle on the beach about 300 feet away. I
eagerly tried to find the turtle, but using binoculars in complete darkness is no easy
feat. Finally, I saw the large shadowy object, slowly heaving its way up from the
shoreline towards the vegetation higher up on the beach.
The sex of the hatchlings is determined by the temperature of the nest—warmer nests result
in more females, cooler nests in more males. It takes the turtles about an hour after
coming ashore to find a suitable site, then to dig the nest and egg chamber. If they are
disturbed before they start laying eggs, they will abandon the nest and return to the sea.
But once the turtles begin laying eggs, they pay little attention even if approached.
We slowly approached a turtle and, with the help of a small torchlight, watched the
ping-pong-ball-sized eggs slowly dropping in ones and twos. When the egg-laying was
completed, we measured the length and width of the turtle—this one was three and a half
feet long, an average size for adults. There was no need to tag this turtle; she carried
a tag from a previous year on her flipper. The tag helps track each turtle’s activities
through the nesting season and longer to chart its nesting trends.
To avoid frightening turtles coming ashore, no artificial light is allowed on the beach
except when the turtle’s size and tag numbers are recorded. And pen-sized torchlights are
used only briefly.
After our turtle had finished laying and covering the eggs with sand, she spent another
hour sand-bathing, or camouflaging the location of her newly-laid eggs to protect them
from predators. After leaving the beach, turtles remain in the nearby waters for a few
weeks. They continue mating and egg-laying, as many as six times. The turtles then start
the long journey back to the home grounds which may be nearly a thousand miles away.
It is one of nature’s mysteries how adult female turtles migrate hundreds and thousands
of miles back to their original hatching beaches. No one seems to know for certain why
this happens. Do the turtles feel that, since it was safe for them when they hatched,
it will also be safe for their eggs? Perhaps the turtles are guided back to the beach
by the positions of the stars or the earth’s magnetic fields?
It is this unique homing feature that causes the turtles’ disorientation when their
hatching beaches are lost to development or reclamation projects. If they are unable to
find another suitable beach nearby, they will release the eggs in the sea, destroying them.
The hatchlings are easy prey for sharks and other fish. However, the biggest threats to
turtles come from mankind—turtles are hunted for their shells and meat while the eggs are
consumed for their supposedly extraordinary nutritional values. Contrary to belief, a
turtle egg contains the same nutritional value as a chicken egg. Turtles are also
increasingly being killed in fishing nets: they drown (turtles need to surface regularly
to breathe). Sea pollution is another major cause of their decline.
SEATRU was organized in 1993 by Associate Professor Dr. Chan Eng Heng and her husband,
Liew Hock Chark, faculty members at University College Terengganu. SEATRU purchases turtle
eggs from licensed egg collectors for incubation.
The program was initially financed by an island resort operator, but at the time of the
Asian financial crisis, the sponsor withdrew from the program. Without funding,
conservation efforts could halt. Egg collectors would sell the turtle eggs to the
public for consumption rather than to SEATRU for incubation.
The situation brought back painful memories to Dr. Chan and Mr. Liew. In the 1980s, they
had researched ways to save the giant leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea).
However, their work came too late. Decades of inaction, lack of nesting beach protection,
and consumption of the eggs diminished that turtle population from a few thousand to just
a handful. The leatherback turtle is now considered extinct in Malaysia.
In addition to educating local people about the benefits of conservation, SEATRU
organizes education camps for 10- to 12-year-old children from local villages. Children
watch nesting green turtles and help the hatchlings back to the sea after they emerge.
The hope is that the children will become advocates in their villages for the turtles.
The Liews believe that green turtles are treasures which must be saved for future
generations. Programs such as SEATRU give the green turtles at least a fighting chance
in their struggle against extinction. It is ironic that while mankind is the turtle’s
biggest threat, mankind may also be its greatest hope for survival.
— The author, Yeoh Toon Huang’94, welcomes feedback at
penangyeoh@yahoo.com.
W
ould you jump at the opportunity to go
for a beach holiday in paradise—white sandy beaches with crystal clear turquoise green
and deep blue waters, afternoons lazing on hammocks in the sea breeze, and nights on the
beach gazing at the stars? And then come face to face with and help save a giant, majestic
species which has existed since the days of the dinosaurs. Sounds exciting and
irresistible? That’s what the Sea Turtle Outreach Program (STOP) is all about.
Each nest of about 100 eggs requires from 50 to 60 days to hatch. Groups of hatchlings
dig their way up through the sand, usually after dark. Emerging, they race to the sea
and swim out to the deep ocean feeding grounds. Statistically, only one of 1,000
hatchlings will survive to reproductive age—between 20 and 50 years old.