Slot J volunteers have just returned with exuberant stories to tell. 16 landings in one of their nights, hawksbill nesting at 3 pm, the return of Little Princess to lay her 4th nest and to top it all, they have come away with the maximum number of nests so far for their one week in Chagar Hutang. We are now inching into the peak nesting months of June, July and August and 34 successful nestings in the first week of June is a record worth noting.
As they shared their stories with me, I could sense so much excitement among them. They have been truly stirred by their one week with the turtles. I in turn shared with them some data I had been examining. The number of green turtle nests deposited in April and May of this year has surpassed all previous records for the same months, as shown in the Table below:
| Year | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April | 47 | 45 | 17 | 34 | 56 | 10 | 34 | 15 | 25 | 24 | 71 |
| May | 87 | 101 | 45 | 71 | 91 | 26 | 89 | 30 | 38 | 75 | 102 |
Please note that in the years before 1998, monitoring of Chagar Hutang for nesting activity commenced in May.
I am really anxious to know how many nests this year’s nesting activity will yield.
Hiew Yin and her friends have now joined our legion of Turtle Ambassadors. One of them, a school teacher will try to get all the school kids in her school to sign the life-long pledge to NOT eat turtle eggs. The Association of Resort Operators in Redang Island have also agreed to spread this message to their guests. If every Malaysian makes this personal commitment to NOT eat turtle eggs, the sale of these eggs in the markets will die a natural death. I am now thinking of how we can gain momentum in our “Say NO to turtle eggs” campaign and I would like to solicit ideas from our readers…
Before I end this blog, i would like to introduce our special Slot K volunteers who have come all the way from Shanghai to participate in the program. Emily and her friends spent part of their marine field trip in Chagar Hutang last year. All of them will be starting their college education this fall. They could have gone anywhere for their summer vacation, but have chosen instead to come back to Malaysia to help save turtles. I find this truly amazing…
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