kellyshepherd.com

In the summer of 2006 I volunteered for WWF (the Worldwide Fund for Nature), in Malaysia. The following is excerpted from a story I wrote at that time for the Gwangju News.

Setiu, a quiet and isolated region in the north-eastern province of Terengganu: I had traveled around the country before, but never to this area. After the vibrant and diverse Kuala Lumpur, a city of six million, this was culture shock! Setiu’s almost-exclusively Malay population lives in small communities along the pristine coastline. Traditional wooden homes, raised on pillars or stilts off the ground, and often brightly painted, are the most common. Goats and cattle roam the landscape, and colourful fishing boats ply the shores. Coconut trees grow everywhere. The beaches of Setiu are brilliant with white sand and clean blue-green water, the warmest I’ve ever encountered.

Our turtle work involved the Painted Terrapin (Callagur borneoensis), a freshwater species, and the Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas), a sea turtle. Nests were protected in a hatchery, where the Green Turtle and Painted Terrapin hatchlings could hatch in peace. Only 10-12 cm in length, the hatchlings were so cute! With big eyes and soft little flippers, they looked like cartoon characters come to life. Miniature determined little dinosaurs. Each individual was carefully measured and weighed; all the information on hundreds of hatchlings had to be carefully recorded. And finally, my favourite part: releasing them! On remote stretches of beach, large numbers of hatchlings would make their way from land to water. This meant at least one stage of their perilous journey was completed safely. We had no control over what was yet to come.

Between crabs, fish, birds, and other predators, a hatchlings’ life expectancy is not high: for every thousand hatchlings that dig and clamber out from their underground nests and into the water, it is estimated that only one survives – and this is before the dangerous intervention of human beings! Pollution and habitat degradation cause great harm to turtle populations. Despite their protected status, turtle eggs are often eaten or sold as delicacies. The increasing presence of electric lights on beaches can disrupt the light-sensitive hatchlings’ sense of direction, causing them to swim toward shore again instead of out to sea. In the ocean, even if they survive the myriad natural predators, turtles are killed by shrimp nets, careless fishing, or as a result of pollution.

Leatherback Turtles, for example, the biggest and most widely recognized sea turtles, are often killed when they mistakenly eat discarded plastic bags resembling their usual food, jellyfish. Malaysia has recently declared their Leatherback Turtles extinct.

I was inspired by the scenic landscape and culture of this Malaysian province. It’s always amazing to see another place, a different climate, a new way to live. I briefly visited the Perhentian Islands (well known to anyone with a Lonely Planet travel book), where I was happy to see some large adult Green Turtles, over a meter long, swimming away beneath us as we were snorkelling! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful.

The best part of the trip, though, the most inspiring of all, was the hatchlings themselves. Releasing them, seeing them swim off into the impossibly huge blue ocean, that was what made it worthwhile. We can only hope that the beaches will still be clean and safe for their return journeys! And hope that future generations of turtles will hatch, make it to the water, and thrive to return and lay eggs, again and again. Please – do some research, donate a little money, volunteer your time – it’s our generation that can make a difference. Find out what you can do to help. Let’s not allow these wonderful, unusual creatures to go extinct.

written in British Columbia, Canada . . . October, 2006

(All text and photos © Kelly Shepherd)