Turtles making a comeback in Terengganu, says varsity

A green turtle comes ashore to nest. - Filepic

DUNGUN: Beaches in Terengganu, including Rantau Abang here, used to see up to 10,000 leatherback turtle landings in the 1950s.

Rantau Abang was a lively place back then, crowded with visitors, but this declined when fewer than 50 turtle landings were sighted during the early 1990s.

This prompted Universiti Malay­sia Terengganu to set up a Turtle Research Unit (Seatru) in 1993, with a station at Chagar Hutang on Pulau Redang.

Seatru chief researcher Assoc Prof Dr Juanita Joseph said Pulau Redang recorded less than 500 nests, with about 100 turtles landing, when the project started.

“We bought green and hawksbill turtles’ eggs from licensed turtle egg collectors at RM120 per nest,” she said. The eggs were for incubation.

In 2005, the state government declared the Chagar Hutang, Mak Simpan and Mak Kepit beaches on Pulau Redang as turtle sanctuaries.

Collecting turtle eggs for sale was abolished, allowing all the eggs collected on the island to be incubated.

“Nesting data showed turtle landings on Pulau Redang had increased in 2010, 17 years after the research started,” said Dr Juanita.

“More exhilarating was that 1,000 turtle nests were recorded at Chagar Hutang for the first time, and this became 1,500 nests last year,” she said. — Bernama