DUNGUN: The return of leatherback turtles to Rantau Abang has raised hopes of reviving tourism along the once-famous Terengganu coastline, decades after dwindling landings led to economic decline.
Rantau Abang federal village development and security committee chairman Atan Mat Nor said three nestings this month had given the community fresh hope.
He recalled that during Rantau Abang’s heyday in the 1970s, more than 50 female leatherbacks came ashore each night during peak season, drawing about 1,000 tourists daily to watch the world’s largest sea turtle nest.
However, leatherback landings dwindled over the years, with the last recorded landing at Rantau Abang in 2010.
An isolated nesting was recorded at nearby Jambu Bongkok beach in 2017.
The latest sightings have renewed hopes that Rantau Abang could regain some of its former tourism appeal.
Fisheries Department director-general Datuk Adnan Hussain said a leatherback, believed to be the same turtle, had landed three times this month and laid 195 eggs.
