Malaysian police seize smuggled turtle eggs

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian marine police said Sunday they had seized 6,250 turtle eggs smuggled in from a neighbouring country to be sold on the island of Borneo as a delicacy.

Gan Ping Sin, the marine police chief of Sandakan, in Borneo's eastern state of Sabah, said the eggs, worth 11,250 ringgit (3,580 dollars), were seized in an operation on Friday.

"The turtle eggs were seized from a boat in the Malaysian water during our operation but the boat operator managed to escape," Gan told AFP.

"We believe the eggs are smuggled in from a neighbouring country," he said but refused to identify which one.

The turtle eggs have been handed to wildlife authorities, Gan said, vowing to step up police operations in the area which he said had seen "quite rampant" turtle egg smuggling.

Turtle eggs are openly sold in markets in parts of Malaysia. Turtles once arrived in their thousands to lay their eggs on Malaysian beaches but are now increasingly rare due to poaching and coastal development.

Under Malaysian law, it is illegal to collect turtle eggs without a permit from the fisheries department but steady demand for turtle products and eggs in Southeast Asia continues to drive the illegal trade.

This prompted environmental group WWF to launch a campaign to stop Malaysians eating turtles in April last year, in a bid to help save stocks of the sea creatures.

Endangered Hawksbill turtles released off Singapore

SINGAPORE — Thirteen endangered sea turtles born and bred in Japan were released off Singapore waters Tuesday as part of efforts to conserve the species.

The five one-year-olds and eight three-year-olds are the offspring of Hawksbill turtles donated by the Underwater World Singapore aquarium to the Port of Nagoya aquarium in 1997 and 2002.

They were brought to Singapore earlier this year and kept at the Underwater World aquarium before the eventual release into their natural habitat.

"I feel a sense of great relief because the turtles are where they belong,' George Balazs, biologist and leader of marine turtle research at the Hawaii-based Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.

"Sea turtles in the sea," the scientist said after the last turtle swam into the water.

The three-year-olds were fitted with satellite tracking devices so that scientists can follow their progress.

The turtles were first transported in boxes from nearby Sentosa island and then released on a stretch of beach on Big Sister's Island.

They crawled down the beach to the water's edge and disappeared into the sea as conservationists, scientists, students and the media erupted into cheers and applause.

"This release project has our strong desire that we want to return those Japanese-born turtles to Singaporean sea (which is) the native place of their parents," said Makoto Soichi, director with the Nagoya aquarium.

Underwater World Singapore said cooperation was key to efforts to conserve turtles which are regarded as a delicacy in parts of Asia.

"We hope that our integrated and collaborative efforts will contribute to our better understanding of Hawksbill turtle behaviour and improve turtle conservation efforts," said Peter chew, deputy general manager of the Singapore aquarium.

Turtle soup is a delicacy in parts of Asia and turtle shells are crushed into powder for use in a jelly dessert.

The Hawksbill shell is also used to make products like combs, ornamental hairpins and glasses frames.

Witness the Hawksbill Turtle Tag and Release at Big Sister Island

Underwater World Singapore hosted the Multidisciplinary Forum- "Turtles Towards Extinction: How Late are we? Is it too late?" to facilitate cross-disciplinary discussions. After the forum participants will also have the opportunity to witness the Hawksbill turtle tag and release at Big Sister Island. The preliminary results will be presented at COP 10* in nagoya, japan, in october 2010.

Below is the news reported on channel 8.

Baby turtles die, disoriented by offshore lights

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. -- Baby loggerhead turtles in two southwest Florida communities have died after crawling toward land-based lights instead of the horizon of the Gulf.

Eve Haverfield, founder of Turtle Time, a nonprofit organization, said turtles from five nests in Bonita Springs and Collier County became disoriented because of lights illegally shone on the beach.

Haverfield said one nest near a home where two bright lights were aimed toward the beach had 112 eggs. She rescued 17 hatchlings still in the nest and three found crawling on a street.

Four were crushed and she believes 58 were eaten by birds or died from exhaustion.

All the turtle tracks led away from the water.

A Bonita Spring environmental specialist said he will send a notice of violation to the property owner.
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PO II input: To future Project Orion teams, keep this in mind so as not to shine your torchlights when you are releasing the baby turtles into the sea. =)

Oil spill update: Sea Turtle eggs relocation changes, President Obama visits Gulf

Oil spill cleanup efforts continue and this past weekend President Obama visited Panama Beach, Florida to get a firsthand view of recovery in the Gulf. Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha joined as they enjoyed some fun activities as well. President Obama spoke at the Coast Guard base and assured the nation that recovery efforts were well underway. Additionally, the Florida Fish and Wildlife announced that they were ceasing the sea turtle eggs relocation program in two Florida counties: Franklin and Gulf. You may see a photo slideshow from President Obama’s Gulf Coast visit below.

The sea turtle egg relocation program has been a success but with the stop of oil flow in the Gulf of Mexico, authorities determined that the nests may remain in these Florida counties. Kipp Frohlich who leads the Florida Fish and Wildlife’s Imperiled Species Section stated, “The decision to move nests was made after careful consideration, and the decision to let the nests remain where they are required the same evaluation and weighing of the information. Just as we established protocols to move the nests, we developed a set of criteria to help us determine when it would be appropriate to discontinue or scale back nest relocations.”

Aerial flights were used to determine where locations of sargsssum were present. Tests were determined and visible oil was not found. Dr. Robbin Trindell who is a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission explained, “The patches of sargassum we examined contained abundant life, including important prey species for sea turtle hatchlings. It is very good habitat for sea turtle hatchlings.”

As of August 11, 2010, 209 sea turtle nests have been relocated and more than 6,000 sea turtle hatchlings have been hatched and released safely into the Atlantic Ocean.

Rare 'princess' turtle returns to Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR — A leatherback turtle has made a surprise return to a Malaysian beach after 32 years, a report said Friday, hailed as a "miracle" by conservationists and renewing hopes for the endangered species.

The leatherbacks -- the largest of all sea turtles -- were once a star attraction at Rantau Abang beach in Malaysia's northern state of Terengganu but overfishing, poaching and pollution caused the population to plummet.

The turtle, dubbed the "Puteri Rantau Abang" or Rantau Abang Princess and identified by special markings, returned last month to end a long dry spell of turtle landings which have been rare in Terengganu since the 1980s.

"It is a miracle that leatherback turtles are making a comeback to this area," Malaysian Fisheries Department director-general Ahamad Sabki Mahmood said according to The Star newspaper.

Ahamad said the turtle's return showed that Rantau Abang was being made a turtle nesting ground once again, and he hoped for more during the next possible nesting period between August 15 and 20.

The Puteri Rantau Abang, which was hatched in the area in 1978 and marked on its shell and left flipper, returned at a weight of 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds), measuring 1.5 metres (five feet) in length and 1.16 metres wide.

It was released back into the sea on Thursday, carrying a satellite transmitter which will help conservationists track turtle migration patterns.

"We expect Puteri Rantau Abang to head for Vietnam and Japan before heading to the Pacific," Ahamad said, adding that the turtle was also expected to travel to Indonesian waters and as far as New Zealand before returning to Malaysia.

Leatherback turtles have been around for the past 75 million years, surviving cycles of near extinction. Terengganu was the only place in Malaysia where leatherbacks nested.

In the 1950s, up to 10,000 female turtles struggled up the beach to lay their eggs each year, but by 1984 the number had fallen to 800 and in 2006 only five nests were found from two turtles, without any hatchlings emerging.

Apart from the leatherbacks, green turtles have also made a return to Malaysian beaches in recent weeks, but experts warned that the species is still headed for oblivion if habitat loss is not stopped.

Rare Malayan box turtles get new homes at Bristol zoo

The reptiles are believed to have been captured in the wild in south-east Asia.

Five rare turtles that were confiscated from smugglers in Hong Kong have been rehomed at Bristol Zoo.

The Malayan box turtles were bound for China to be sold for their meat, used as pets or used in traditional medicine.

The creatures were some of 150 turtles of various species that were seized by customs officials in Hong Kong.

The turtles, which are in quarantine, are believed to have been captured in the wild in south-east Asia.

The customs officials worked with the Turtle Survival Alliance to find them new homes.

'Vulnerable species'

Tim Skelton, Bristol Zoo's curator of reptiles and amphibians, said: "We are pleased to be able to offer a safe new home for these turtles, which were likely to have otherwise been sold and killed.

"Exact information about them, such as their age, is not known.

"They could be anywhere between 10 and 30 years old, but we hope to breed them to help boost the captive population of this vulnerable species, as well as to highlight the plight of all south-east Asian turtle species."

Malayan box turtles, which usually live on the edge of swamps, streams or ponds, have been classified as 'vulnerable' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

They are threatened by the destruction of their habitat, and hunters.

A zoo spokesman said the five animal would join three other Malayan box turtles that had also been seized by customs officials 10 years ago.

More Sea Turtles Landing in Cherating

KUANTAN: Turtle conservation in Cherating has shown positive results as more landings are recorded every year and about half the number are females hatched at the sanctuary.

Efforts taken by the authorities since 1980s have increased the landings from about 100 in the late 1990s to 252 last year.

To date, 252,184 turtle hatchlings have been released at the Cherating Turtle Sanctuary and 18,596 were hatched last year.

State Fisheries Department director Datuk Mohamad Mat Saman said this was a significant achievement for the turtle sanctuary as it had maintained an average of 260 turtle landings per year for the past 10 years.

He added that a sanctuary in Tioman was also collecting and hatching about 6,000 turtle eggs every year.

Almost all the turtles that land in Cherating comprise the agar species (green turtle) while in Tioman, 60 per cent consist of green turtles. The remaining are penyu karah or hawksbill turtles.


"We receive support from the locals, especially fishermen and their families, who help collect turtle eggs and send them to the sanctuaries," Mohamad said.

He was speaking after the launch of a turtle awareness programme by Kuantan district officer Datuk Mariam Ismail at the Cherating Turtle Sanctuary near here yesterday. Present were Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Centre (Tumec) head Syed Abdullah Syed Abdul Kadir and AquaWalk Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Simon Fong.

Mohamad said the number of dead turtles found in the state had dropped to two last year compared with 15 in 1999. Although there was no report of turtle eggs being sold in the state, he said the department had proposed a fine of RM500 as a deterrent.


At the event, four young green turtles were released into the sea, with one of them fixed with a satellite telemetry tracking device. The turtles were raised at the Aquaria KLCC after they were hatched at the turtle sanctuary in Cherating four years ago.

AquaWalk had donated the satellite tracking system while Tumec will bear the cost of the satellite connection service.

Green turtles return to Malaysia but future bleak

KUALA LUMPUR — Green turtles are returning to Malaysia in their hundreds after being nearly wiped out, but experts warned Thursday that the species is still headed for oblivion if habitat loss is not stopped.

Thousands of turtles used to land every year on Malaysian beaches, but their numbers plummeted in the 1980s due to rampant coastal development and the plundering of eggs from their sandy nests.

However, landings have increased in the past few years in the eastern resort strip of Cherating, and some 350 -- mostly green turtles but also some hawksbills -- now arrive there each year, officials said.

Mohamad Mat Saman, fisheries department director in central Pahang state, said that initiatives such as new hatcheries and efforts to promote conservation had led to the improvement.

"This year up until June we had 200 turtles coming to lay their eggs," he told AFP.

"About 70 percent of them had previously landed in Cherating and we believe others were born here. All turtles which land are tagged."

"We received support from the locals and fishermen who collect turtle eggs and hand them to the sanctuary," he said.

Mohamad said that authorities have proposed introducing a new law to ban turtle egg consumption in Pahang state by the end of this year.

Turtle nesting sites are dotted along peninsular Malaysia's east coast, but the leatherbacks which were once common have now virtually disappeared.

Elizabeth John from conservation group Traffic said that while some turtle populations now appear stable, their numbers have dropped dramatically since the 1970s.

"Habitat loss is a major threat to green turtles and all other marine turtles that nest on Malaysian beaches. Infrastructure development along the coast near key nesting sites has impacted populations," she said.

"The local trade and consumption of turtle eggs is another threat to green turtles," she added.

John said green turtles are facing "the double whammy of losing their homes and their young", much as leatherback turtles did during the past few decades.

"It's heartening to see green turtles still returning to nest on Malaysian shores, but if we fail to address the threats that face them, we will be pushing them go down the same path towards destruction," she said.

Gulf Coast turtle hatchlings released on Florida's east coast

Playalinda Beach, Titusville, Florida (CNN) -- One-day-old loggerhead turtles were set free adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center overnight, scurrying down a beach in the cover of darkness to begin their lives.

The baby turtles were hatched at a space center facility after being transferred from the beaches in the Florida Panhandle and Alabama.

Biologists believed 700 to 800 turtle nests were in jeopardy of perishing, with BP's oil lurking offshore.

"We would have 100 percent mortality if the hatchlings were not able to be translocated," said Jeff Trandahl of the Fish and Wildlife Foundation. "We are looking at relocating 70,000 to 80,000 turtle eggs."

Biologists have begun digging up nests and shipping them, courtesy of FedEx, to a large facility at the space center. So far, 13,000 eggs have arrived, and 2,600 hatchlings have been released.

The eggs are faring better than those in nature, project manager Jane Provancha said. More than 80 percent of the hatchlings have hatched.

Tom Strickland, assistant interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, witnessed the removal of the eggs and the release of the turtles.

"Out of all the tragedies and the difficulty of the oil spill, there are great stories," Strickland said.

Biologists will continue to remove, ship and release the baby turtles during the turtle season that runs through September.

Sea turtle eggs found at Mie beach

TSU, Mie Pref. (Kyodo) Loggerhead turtle eggs have been found at a beach near a major industrial complex in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, for the first time since 2003, according to a local conservation group.

The 100 or so eggs, which are expected to hatch in about two months, were confirmed at Yoshizaki beach on Tuesday by the sea turtle conservation group in Yokkaichi after it received a report from a man who was fishing at night.

The ocean turtle, which spends most of its life in the sea with only females coming ashore on summer nights to lay eggs, used to come to the coast of Mie Prefecture every year, riding the warm Black Current from the south.

The area around the nest was put under protective netting Wednesday by the group's members so that the eggs are not dug up by animals or humans.

"We want to keep the beach clean and watch the eggs," group leader Kazutomo Mori, 42, said. "We hope to change the image of Yokkaichi from a town of pollution to a town where sea turtles come to."