That was what happened on the 2nd of June An orchestration of three events made possible with the assistance of Fong and Nurul who helped receive our visitors from KL and brought them to the terrapin release site in Penarik.

As planned, we arrived in Kampong Mangkuk at 8.30 am to track river terrapins. By 9.00 am, we were ready to deploy the hydrophone from our own 15 hp speedboat Sipenyu III that had just been refurbished for the river terrapin tracking work. Notice the spanking new canopy? It was better than the biggest umbrella we have ever used in an open boat :)

Within half an hour, we located terrapin 11516, followed shortly by 11509. These are the 3.75 and 2.3 kg terrapins we had released on the 1st of May. A month later, they were still in the main river, and less than a km upstream from the release site. They had moved beyond the point of the first sand mining site and were close to the location of the net-cages.

We decided to take the boat upstream, beyond the Beris Bridge, and the second sand mining site. We moved into a branch of the Setiu where the first terrapin (body weight 1.8 kg) released on 31 March had been located 8 days after her release. None of our terrapins were found here this time, but we spotted a male painted terrapin caught in a drift net that had been set across the stream. It was 10.20 am. My heart sank. Entanglement had been encountered in each of the last three tracking trips and involved a painted terrapin every time.

My despair turned to joy when we got nearer to the entangled terrapin. It was still alive! We lost no time in disengaging the tangled monofilament mesh around the terrapin. In my anxiety to free the animal, I was less than careful and got bitten by it. The bite marks are still evident on my thumb with no signs of infection so far. It was a great feeling, having the handsome male in all its breeding glory freed. It had a curved carapace length of 34.8 cm and a width of 30 cm. The drift net that caught it had a stretch mesh size of 13 cm. We released it in the main river, far from where the net had been set. I will try to see how this entanglement problem can be solved to help save the painted terrapins.

After this both happy and unhappy event, we continued with the tracking and moved as far upstream as the depth of the river allowed us. As in previous trips, we entered the branches of the river, but could not locate terrapins 11507 and 11521. By then, after many phone calls, our friends from KL had arrived and were having lunch. We too decided to have a quick lunch by the Beris bridge before heading back to Rani’s house.

Our timing to meet Fong and Nurul, the KL group and cameramen from Pusat Teknologi Maklumat (PTM), UMT were perfect. The painted terrapin release took place without a hitch as planned at 1 pm. Details on these terrapins can be found in the previous blog.

I think I was just as pleased as the 14 members of the Persatuan Penganut Agama Buddha Amitabha Huayan Selangor who had come all the way for the release event. The simple ceremony was videotaped by professional cameramen, thanks to last minute arrangements made by En. Wazir from PTM.

We proceeded to the Merang jetty immediately after the release to board Fauzi’s boat to Chagar Hutang, Redang The boat fare was RM1,400 for the round trip. The one night stay for the society members was unforgetable as two green turtles nested within a short distance of each other that night. However, the turtles really tested the patience of our friends. Multiple body pits were made and after more than four hours of labour on the beach, they finally nested around midnight. As this was the first time they had ever seen turtles nest, they decided to wait for the first turtle to complete camouflaging her nest and return to the sea before they too retired for the night. It was 1.59 am when they said their goodbyes to the turtle. I was just as tired as our visitors who had started driving from KL at 4.30 am.

I end this blog by sharing two more pictures, briefing the visitors (7th picture), and with Gary, Soleha and Man who were on duty that time (8th picture).

Chan, on activities carried out on the 2nd and 3rd of June 2008.

• A day in the Setiu River
• River terrapin updates
• The terrapins have been released
• Chance for river terrapins to survive in the wild
• Terrapin release at Kg. Pasir Gajah, Kemaman