Releasing baby turtles
Extending our holiday in Melaka was indeed a very great idea because we got to help release baby turtles to have their first swim in the ocean.
We were about to check-out from the Inn on Monday (Dec 6, 2010) when we overheard a group of children talking about the release of baby turtles at 6.30pm by the innkeeper. Having no encounter at all with turtles face to face, we excitedly extended our stay for one more day and waited eagerly by the beach sharp 6.30pm.
According to Ruhaizan Omar, one of the inn’s employee, a hawksbill turtle made its way into the inn area and laid some 70 eggs there in September 2010. The eggs hatched on December 4.
Yassin holding hawksbill baby turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). The 2 days old baby turtles were so tiny and I think each one of them weighted more or less around 20 grams.
My husband holding our adopted tiny babies, named Squirtle and Blastoise by Yassin.Yes, too much Pokemon.
Hawksbill turtle has heart-shaped carapace
Ruhaizan told us that the turtles will be back home in 15 years’ time. Let’s pray that all 70 babies will have a safe journey living their destined life in the ocean so that they will come back safe to Pengkalan Balak shore.
I did some readings about hawksbill and found out that in 1982, The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has red-listed hawksbill species as Endangered and it was upgraded to Critically Endangered in 1996. This is due to the fact that many adult turtles have been killed by humans, both deliberately and incidentally. The eggs are eaten as delicacy and some have been harvested for their beautiful carapaces. Their shells were even made as jewelry, combs and brushes. This reminds me of the fact that Leatherback turtles are not returning to Terengganu due to excessive egg-collection, fishery-related mortality (for example, accidental mortality in the nets and long-lines of fishing fleets), pollution, and coastal development.
Also found out from Save Our Sea Turtles that over 400,000 Sea Turtle eggs were being eaten each year in Terengganu. Only 1 in 10,000 Sea Turtle live to adulthood.
So, lets help save the turtles. Do not collect or eat their eggs. Please educate yourself about turtles. You can find a lot of information about them on the internet. For a start, you can read here, here and here.
Ok, last but not least, I managed to record the baby turtles using my phone! Enjoy!
More pictures of our overall journey and route map soon in another post. Come back here often ya.
14 Comments
darkstar
ahhh…comelnye little turtles!!! geramm…kaki dia bgerak2!
sy suke, suke, suke.. 😀 yassin pun comel gak
mrs jamal
betul2 makan angin ni
zulkbo
salam..
kerja amal tu..
selamat bercuti
dan berehat..
baby
bain pernah bela sekor turtle..nama dia Tuty..tp skang dah hilang. huhuu….^_^
edi
they’re too cute!!!!!!!!
emila
they are!
emila
la ya ke?
emila
salam…tolong pihak resort buat kerja amal 🙂
terimakasih, dah habis bercuti, sekarang tengah bertungkus lumus siapkan kerja…
emila
hehehe
emila
memang comel!! oh yassin pun? hehe thank you!
LadyJava
Yasin crying ke? he looks so sad..
emila
dia risau baby turtles tu selamat ke tidak…
imaisha
Yassin mcm takut je nak pegang turtle.. maybe because it looks so tiny..
imaisha
comel je nama Tuty 🙂 Yassin pulak funny bagi nama Squirtle and Blastoise. lol. I imagine the Blastoise one is much bigger than Squirtle but tgk dua2 turtle, saiz lebih kurang sama je kot 😉