How To Save A Turtle

i once did something crazy.

i washed and scrubbed an entire tank full of terrapins.

and i also helped wash and clean all the terrapins that stayed in there.

i’m not talking about a little plastic tank with a pair of little itty-bitty terrapins you bought from the pet shop. i’m talking about a 100 or so monster-sized adult terrapins that are twice the size of my head. and i’m talking about a HUMONGOUS AQUARIUM made of cement and stone that is bigger than my living room… a humongous aquarium filled with murky green water, the floor and walls of which were covered with a yucky sludge of rotting vegetables, mud, terrapin shit and some other unrecognizable sediments. No words can properly describe the stench and filth of that tank!!!

a picture of the very tank we washed, found here

see how gross that tank is!!

about 15 of us rolled up our sleeves and walked barefoot through that sludge to clean the tank. we hosed the tank down and removed that muck stuck to the floors with our bare hands and rakes, and we picked up each flailing monster terrapin and gave their shells a good scrub. then we scrubbed the floors with brushes and water, making sure everything was squeaky clean before we left the place.

why? So that the terrapins in the Bota Kanan River Terrapin Conservation & Breeding Center (run by PERHILITAN) would be happy in a cleaner home :)

the river terrapin is an endangered species – only 25 female terrapins were found to have laid eggs on the banks of Sungai Perak last year, compared to the tens of thousands that used to swarm the riverbanks back in the early 1900’s. this Conservation Center that we were at – and whose tanks we cleaned – was started by PERHILITAN to keep these terrapins from going into extinction. they have released about 40,000 terrapins into Sungai Perak ever since the start of their breeding program :) it’s really admirable, the work they do there.

now i want to talk a little bit about the brothers of terrapins, and an animal that is very familiar to all of us Malaysians – the turtle.

come nesting season, huge turtles are known to descend on the beaches of Terengganu to nest and lay their eggs. it’s a spectacular event that i daresay is quite the pride of biologists in our country. but like the river terrapin, the nesting activity and headcount of the turtles in our seas are dwindling frightfully. in the 60’s, there used to be about 3000-4000 leatherback turtle nests found on our very beaches, but in the past decade, there are only LESS THAN 10 nests per year. and these nests are mostly infertile.

those statistics are extremely scary, and if this keeps up, we are going to be losing a magnificent marine species. i’m sure i don’t need to explain why it’s important to preserve nature and wildlife; surely everyone already knows the reasons why. what I’m going to do though, is tell you – the individual – how you can help save the turtles.

1. Don’t Eat Turtle Eggs / Meat
you’d think that with all this focus on turtle extinction, people would know well enough to stay away from eating turtle eggs… but apparently they don’t. in my recent trips to Terengganu, I’ve seen ‘telor penyu’ for sale in a few markets. people buy and sell them, and it’s not very discreet. i don’t care what you say about the ‘unique experience’ of eating turtle eggs or ‘because other people eat them then so can I’… it is wrong. by buying or consuming turtle eggs and meat, or even keeping quiet when you see them being collected or sold, you’re harming the turtles and contributing to their extinction. so please, for the sake of a beautiful species of marine life, please don’t buy or eat turtle eggs and meat.

(these are terrapin eggs from the Terrapin Conservation center!! we got to see them in the nesting ground :D)

2. Don’t Litter
i know how it’s so easy to just chuck that plastic bag or cigarette butt into the sea when you’re out on a boat or having a quick tan on the beach, but each time you do that, an animal may die from choking on your litter. turtles are known to die from eating plastic bags floating in the sea (and there are definitely lots of plastic bags floating around in our seas), so do what you can to reduce the amount of litter in our waters :)

3. Raise Awareness
every cause needs people to believe in it before it can work. i’ve never been one to sit down and be quiet about an injustice being done, and I hope that everyone can do the same :) sometimes all it takes is a loud and clear sign that PEOPLE CARE, before the relevant authorities start doing anything about the problem.

4. Volunteer
you can volunteer with the WWF, who are very active in their turtle conservation efforts. volunteering your time and energy to this cause is a huge step, and i hope that by writing this post, i have at least stirred the curiosity of one person who would be interested in volunteering with a turtle conservation program. come the summer, i may do so :) haha i’m graduating from terrapins to turtles!!!

5. Donate to the WWF
you can do so on their website (http://wwf.org.my), or you can just pick up your mobile phone and SMS WWF(SPACE)Your full name(SPACE)Email address and send it all to 39398. each SMS donates RM3, which will go into their valiant efforts of habitat conservation for the turtles. c’mon, this is by far the easiest of the 5 steps :) do me a BIG favour and send an SMS too, okay?

ta-da!

i’m not receiving a single cent for this post. i returned their offer so that they could engage one more blogger who will in turn be achieving Step #3 up there through his or her blog and impact his or her readers on this issue. like with all efforts, little steps go a long way, and i hope this post that i’ve written eventually goes a long way too in increasing awareness about our turtles.

all it takes is a little bit of kindness to save a turtle :)

and if you would like to try your hand at cleaning a terrapin tank, you know where to holler ;)

the terrapins after we cleaned them, picture taken by Yun. Yun don’t you feel proud looking at how clean the floor and the terrapins are!!! hasil titik peluh kami :P

Comments March 13th, 2008