Also, a heart-felt THANK YOU to those of you who have made a donation to the Turtle Conservation Centre (TCC). Like we have said countless times, no amount is too little or too much, and like we have promised you many times over, the donations will be used to support turtle conservation projects that the TCC carries out.

Special thanks also go to the following individuals / companies (in alphabetical order):

• Brennan Caverhill for announcing the Turtle Blogathon on the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute (MTRI) website.
• Brett Curtis for helping promote the Turtle Blogathon on the HerpHut Facebook Fan page and HerpHut forums, despite finding out about the event just days before.
• Heather Lowe of Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) for helping us promote the Turtle Blogathon in the TSA Facebook Group and in the Oct 23rd newsletter.
• Hilary Chiew
• Lai May Leng, for introducing us to Max Generation Sdn. Bhd.
• Lim Puay Aun
• Max Generation Sdn. Bhd. for sponsoring prizes and packages for TCC to raise funds.
• Rahayu Zulkifli
• Sean Augustin
• The New Straits Times for carrying our Turtle Blogathon story
• The Star for carrying our Turtle Blogathon story
• Visitors who dropped by physically at Chan’s place — Vicki Chew, Gan Yew Sun, CK Chong, Chark Ling Wei, Azimi, Yeong Yee Ling

And last but not least, to everybody who has participated in the Turtle Blogathon in one way or another, we could never have possibly gotten this far without you guys. THANK YOU.

In the past 24 hours, we have published 31 blog posts, generated about 150 comments, made some friends and had lots of fun!

The amount of funds raised in the past 24 hours is RM 3,800 (James donated RM 300 after the blogathon has ended). You may still continue to donate to TCC if you wish to as we will be leaving the DONATE link intact :)

Again, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, from the bottom of our hearts.

Thank You from the bottom of our hearts :)

Sincerely,
Chan, Pelf and Fong
Oct 26th, 2009

It wasn’t the initiation I expected, but I didn’t mind.

We were on a re-con mission to Pasir Kumpal, Dungun to check on a river terrapin nesting site as well as a make-shift hut to be used to monitor the river terrapins during the nesting season.

Back then all I knew of turtles were that its population was dwindling and the myth that if a turtle bit you, it wouldn’t let go till there was lightning.

But in that assignment, the first few I had when I was transferred to Terengganu in January 2006, I learned quite a bit, with the scientific jargon whizzing past my head (which at times still does).

For one, terrapin eggs looked different than turtle eggs. They were oval in shape, not ping-pong like.

2. It was consumed by locals as well as monitor lizards.

3. What a wild boar hoof print looks like and finally, if you procrastinate on cleaning the mud on your leather shoes, you might regret it.

Of course one write-up later led to many more assignments with Prof Chan et al., and that meant I learnt a little bit more.

More importantly I enjoyed learning it. I can actually tell you, despite my limited intellect, the different types of turtles in English and Malay. Some of my colleagues would actually refer to me when writing on turtles!

And even more importantly, for once I could be a proactive environmentalist, where I hope to raise awareness among readers about the plight of turtles and the importance of conservation.

Slowly but surely, Prof Chan, Pelf, Fong and I made the inevitable transition from valuable contacts, who were ever ready with good sound-bites, to good friends.

And that led to “yam-cha”-ing sessions or Scrabble or dinner of which saw my passion to do my part for the environment in anyway I could grow.

They would tell me problems they faced and we tackle it via an article or by picking each other’s brain to beat “The Man”.

I liked that. I like it a lot.

Now, I’m proud that this trio of women I call friends are playing a bigger role in setting up the Turtle Conservation Centre and I’m glad I can report about it and keep tabs on.

I want their dream to succeed, not so much because it will make a good story (it is already a great story), but because of the impact it will make, especially in educating the public.

I’m still amazed that I am witnessing the setting up of a centre that, I predict, will have a tsunami-effect on conservation.

And it all began when I decided to get my feet wet.

Sean Augustin is a journalist with The New Straits Times who will continue to write about turtles even if he gets teased about it by editors and will remain petulant when the story is not published.

This post is part of Turtle Blogathon 2009, where we stayed up for 24-straight-hours to blog about turtles. To make a donation, please visit the Donations page. Posts written during the Turtle Blogathon are filed in the Turtle Blogathon 2009 category.

Weekend with turtle participants watching a turtle go back to sea after she had laid her eggs.

The program costs RM 250 per person and this package includes a 3D2N stay at the basic but clean Ma’ Daerah longhouse. The price includes all meals throughout your stay, as well as a specially designed Ma’ Daerah t-shirt. At the end of the program, participants will also receive a certificate of participation.

How do you get to Ma’ Daerah? You can either drive to Kerteh town in Terengganu, or take a bus from the Hentian Putra bus station in Kuala Lumpur. Ask for a morning ticket to either Dungun or Kuala Terengganu, but please don’t forget to tell the driver to drop you off in front of the Kerteh McDonald’s (there is only one McDonald’s in Kerteh, so the driver should not miss it!). This is also the pick-up point for car drivers. Once you are there, give the facilitator on duty a call (you will be given his/her number beforehand) where you will be taken to the sanctuary in a 4-wheel drive vehicle. If you feel nervous about driving into the sanctuary with your own car (think rugged, windy, narrow dirt road), you may choose to leave your car at the Kerteh Police Station (at no fee).

In addition to the above, you can also assist by adopting a turtle or a nest at RM 150 and RM 100 respectively. All monies received under both the Turtle/Nest Adoption or Weekend with Turtle programs will be deposited into the Ma’ Daerah Trust Fund which will be used towards upkeeping and maintenance of the sanctuary, purchase of equipment, payment of workers’ salaries, etc.

NOTE: The “Weekend with the Turtles” program has been discontinued in 2010. For more information, please send your email to madaerahturtle@yahoo.com.

Rahayu joined WWF-Malaysia in 2003 as a Programme Officer working closely with the local villagers and fishermen around Kerteh and Paka on turtle conservation. Through sheer grit, sweat and tears, a local community group called Persatuan MEKAR was formed which has since established itself as the first and an exemplary community based organisation that advocates for turtle protection in the country. Her work scope has since expanded to include turtle and terrapin conservation in Setiu, and she now supervises 2 different project sites in Terengganu. Her hobbies include off the beaten track travels, photography, cycling, scuba diving and birdwatching. She shares the field house in Kerteh with her colleague and a fat cat.

This post is part of Turtle Blogathon 2009, where we stayed up for 24-straight-hours to blog about turtles. To make a donation, please visit the Donations page. Posts written during the Turtle Blogathon are filed in the Turtle Blogathon 2009 category.

Beach patrolling
In collaboration with the Department of Fisheries, we patrol the nesting beaches for nesting females, and collect the eggs for incubation in the hatchery. Although in situ incubation (where eggs are left in their natural nests) is a better option because they produce more healthy and robust hatchlings, leaving the eggs in situ may expose them to higher risks of predation from feral animals such as dogs, wild boars and monitor lizards, not to mention poaching by humans! So these eggs are brought back to the nearest hatchery for incubation.

Egg buy-back
Several beaches in Terengganu that do not see many turtle and terrapin nestings are tendered out to licensed egg collectors who would either eat them or sell these eggs to the markets for additional income. In the Kerteh area, there are 5 main nesting beaches that are tendered out, and we buy turtle and terrapin eggs from them for incubation at the hatchery.

Training eggs collectors/rangers/hatchery workers
Turtle/terrapin hatching success is very much a team effort. It starts from the person who collects the eggs on the beach, to the person who buries the eggs in the hatchery and to the person who overlooks the cleanliness and safety of the hatchery. So training sessions arere also conducted for the hatchery workers, egg collectors and turtle rangers on the correct egg handling techniques and best hatchery management practices, to ensure a high hatching success rate.

A female turtle returns to the sea after having being fixed with a satellite transmitter.

Tracking turtles with satellite transmitters
As you know, turtles know no human-made boundaries. They travel from their feeding areas to their respective nesting beaches, and this can be hundreds if not thousands of kilometers apart, and may pass international waters. Turtle conservation includes not just protecting their nesting beaches, but also their inter-nesting habitat (where they go between laying their first nest and their subsequent nests during a particular season), their migratory pathways as well as their feeding habitats. So we deploy satellite transmitters on these turtles to better understand their migratory routes. Information received from this study will be communicated to other turtle conservation groups in the respective countries these turtles go to so we can all work collaboratively in the pursuit of conserving these ancient species.

Anti-turtle egg campaign
The sale and consumption of turtle eggs are still rampant because there is no law in the country that prohibits them, with the exception of the leatherback eggs in Terengganu. So recently WWF-Malaysia ran an anti-turtle egg campaign aimed at getting the public’s pledges on the following:

1. To support laws that will ban the sale and consumption of all turtle eggs throughout Malaysia;
2. To support the call for comprehensive and holistic Federal legislation to conserve marine turtles; and
3. To pledge never to consume turtle eggs, or trade in turtles or their parts.

Community education and awareness
And last but not least, we work very closely with the local communities at all our project sites. We realize that working on just scientific research or hatchery management will not be effective in arresting the turtle decline because many of the threats are anthropogenic (caused by humans). In Kerteh, we work closely with, and act as technical advisors to the local community conservation group known as Persatuan Khazanah Rakyat Ma’ Daerah (MEKAR) which comprises local villagers, youths, teachers, fishermen, etc. who are concerned about the decline of the turtles. MEKAR spearheads community education and awareness on turtles in the Kemaman and Dungun areas and has carried out activities such as awareness roadshows, a workshop on turtle release and resuscitation techniques for fishermen, facilitated turtle camps at the Ma’ Daerah Turtle Sanctuary, produced a teachers’ guide on how to infuse turtle conservation message into the primary school curriculum, produced a Friday prayer sermon text on turtle and environmental conservation, participated in environmental awareness exhibitions and many more.

Rahayu joined WWF-Malaysia in 2003 as a Programme Officer working closely with the local villagers and fishermen around Kerteh and Paka on turtle conservation. Through sheer grit, sweat and tears, a local community group called Persatuan MEKAR was formed which has since established itself as the first and an exemplary community based organisation that advocates for turtle protection in the country. Her work scope has since expanded to include turtle and terrapin conservation in Setiu, and she now supervises 2 different project sites in Terengganu. Her hobbies include off the beaten track travels, photography, cycling, scuba diving and birdwatching. She shares the field house in Kerteh with her colleague and a fat cat.

This post is part of Turtle Blogathon 2009, where we stayed up for 24-straight-hours to blog about turtles. To make a donation, please visit the Donations page. Posts written during the Turtle Blogathon are filed in the Turtle Blogathon 2009 category.

Apart from that, I also “keep my ear to the ground”, meaning, I communicate regularly with the local community we work with, to get the latest information on the use of illegal fishing gear that entangle and drown turtles, egg poaching activities, turtle deaths, any turtles that need to be rescued, to keep a lookout for any signs of nesting beach encroachment, etc. We also monitor and provide technical inputs to proposed development plans near nesting beaches, and monitor the same. In some instances, we also lobby the relevant authorities for legal protection of turtle and terrapin nesting beaches and the surrounding areas which are needed as buffer zones.

Koala protesting against turtle egg sale in Kemaman market

I also make it a point to visit the night markets to monitor the sale of turtle eggs. Since the law does not ban the sale and consumption of turtle eggs (with the exception of the leatherbacks eggs in Terengganu), there is nothing I can do but sit down and talk to the seller and try to educate him/her as well as the potential buyers on why it is important to stop selling and eating turtle eggs. I do the same whenever I go on personal trips to the wet market in Kuala Terengganu (no, I am definitely not a favourite among the egg sellers!).

Sometimes I also have to do things that I am not comfortable doing, for example appear on television, radio, and get interviewed by the print media. But we still have to do these – all in the name of conservation – because this is one of the ways the conservation message can be spread out far and wide.

Occasionally I get invited to give turtle awareness talks to visitors at the sanctuary, to schools and university students, and even to professionals and the business community.

Last but not least, I also upgrade my knowledge regularly by reading up journals and literature on turtles, and keeping in touch with other “turtlers” from within the country as well as outside. Turtles go global, and so must we.

Rahayu joined WWF-Malaysia in 2003 as a Programme Officer working closely with the local villagers and fishermen around Kerteh and Paka on turtle conservation. Through sheer grit, sweat and tears, a local community group called Persatuan MEKAR was formed which has since established itself as the first and an exemplary community based organisation that advocates for turtle protection in the country. Her work scope has since expanded to include turtle and terrapin conservation in Setiu, and she now supervises 2 different project sites in Terengganu. Her hobbies include off the beaten track travels, photography, cycling, scuba diving and birdwatching. She shares the field house in Kerteh with her colleague and a fat cat.

This post is part of Turtle Blogathon 2009, where we stayed up for 24-straight-hours to blog about turtles. To make a donation, please visit the Donations page. Posts written during the Turtle Blogathon are filed in the Turtle Blogathon 2009 category.