Egging on sea turtles

Fewer sea turtle eggs collected means not many hatchlings are released back into the sea from the hatchery on Pulau Tinggi. —Photos: REMAR NORDIN/The Star

THE number of sea turtles laying eggs on the islands of Mersing has declined and this has islanders, who depend on egg sales to supplement their income, worried.

The fishing community in Pulau Tinggi and Pulau Sibu are hoping that the Johor government and the Fisheries Department will look into the reason for the decline.

The collected eggs are sold to the state Fisheries Department as part of its sea turtle conservation programme.

This has been one of the ways islanders gain additional income, besides catching fish and working as boatmen for island hopping activities.

According to the islanders, the number of turtle sightings had also fallen this year compared to three years ago, when sightings were still common.

Fourth-generation fisherman Mohd Kamani Abdul Kadir, 42, told StarMetro that there were two types of sea turtles in Mersing, namely penyu agar or green sea turtle, and penyu karah (hawksbill sea turtle).

“Some of us believe that the reason for the decline is due to an increase in the number of island resorts, which has prevented sea turtles from nesting.

“The other reason is sand erosion around islands where these sea turtles used to go, leaving them with little to no space to lay their eggs,” he said.

He highlighted that it was a common sight to see sea turtles lay eggs back in the 1990s.

“These days, even seeing one sea turtle is rare,” he said, adding that collecting sea turtle eggs helped him supplement his income as a coastal fisherman.

Sharing about his work routine, Mohd Kamani said that due to the lack of job opportunities in Pulau Sibu, he would go out to sea to catch fish and look for signs of sea turtle trails on the beach. He also takes on part-time work as a boat driver during weekends.

“I usually make around RM60 a day, depending on whether I manage to catch any fish. So, finding sea turtle eggs would be a bonus for me to earn extra cash and put more food on the table for my family,” he explained.

Egg collectors earn RM2.50 for each sea turtle egg sold to the Fisheries Department.

A single clutch (sea turtle nest) can contain up to 180 eggs.

Mohd Kamani’s father, Abdul Kadir Syed Idrus, 62, said it was hard to predict where sea turtles would lay their eggs due to the lack of sightings and decline in sea turtle population over the years.

“Those days, we just needed to go around Pulau Sibu, and there would be at least five nests every day.

“However, these days you must visit each island to search for signs of sea turtles and still probably return empty-handed.

“Times have changed,” he said, adding that egg collectors would need to work extra hard to find a single nest.

Norashimah Sharom, 36, who lives in Pulau Tinggi, has been collecting sea turtle eggs for the past 10 years.

She said this year had been the most challenging in terms of finding sea turtle nests.

“I don’t have a boat, so I just search for sea turtle trails and nests on foot, starting from one end of our village in Pasir Panjang towards the end of Teluk Sauk, from the middle of the night until early dawn.

“Those with boats will head out to places like Tanjung Balang and Teluk Lipas, as fewer people live there,” she said.

She did not believe that the growing number of resorts on the islands were to blame for the decline in sea turtle landings.

“I have witnessed a sea turtle laying eggs in front of my house under a lamp post, so I believe there is no issue of these animals being afraid to come to the beach when there are lights.

“There must be some other cause that we don’t know about.

“There was also a time when a sea turtle nested right under our house.

“We had to help it move closer to the sea,” she recalled.

She added that she helped to release newly hatched sea turtles from the Pulau Tinggi hatchery run by the Fisheries Department.

Norashimah said she inherited both her egg collecting skills and business from her mother, Hazimah Mahidin, 65, better known as Mok Su.

She said that sea turtle eggs were part of the villagers’ diet three decades ago, due to the abundance of eggs and lack of places to sell them back in the 1990s.

“Some of the villagers would even pickle the eggs they found, so they would have something to eat during the monsoon when it was hard to catch fish.

“But that has gradually become less common as people become more aware of the importance of protecting these marine creatures, combined with the Johor Fisheries Department’s move to buy up all the eggs that the islanders and fishermen find,” she added.

Hazimah said the last time she saw a huge number of sea turtle eggs was three years ago.

“This year my daughter only managed to find two nests, one in January and one in May,” she said, adding that she hoped the department’s efforts to release hatchlings into the sea would help increase the sea turtle population in the area again.