A fascinating experience on Turtle Island

Tropical plant growing by beach
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Saturday 23 August 2008

Sepilok to Turtle Island

Thrashing like windmills, their flippers propelled the young hatchlings into the sea to an uncertain future.

I am much refreshed this morning and a good day it should be. Today we head for Turtle Island Park which is 40 kilometres off-shore from Sandakan and consists of four islands. The Park is a safe haven for green and hawksbill turtles. I’m looking forward to this.

Cricket nibbling away for its dinner.
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Later:

The islands were reached by a speedboat driven by two noisy 85hp outboard motors. As the tide was very low, we could not leave from the usual jetty and the new location was not very salubrious! Pretty awful in fact, made that much worse, I guess, due to the low tide. Crossing the Sulu Sea took around an hour and we were on Selingaan Island by 11h00. This island houses the park headquarters, accommodation facilities and the hatchery. The other islands are more for conservation activities and are uninhabited.

Wonderful spikes of flowers
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A swim in the warm tropical waters was just what the doctor ordered... a little ‘me’ time with just the fish for company. Later we were served a buffet lunch after which I had another swim and snorkel. There were lots of small colourful tropical fish but it’s not a patch on the Great Barrier Reef. Next I decided to walk around the island. The slow walk, with many stops to take photos of many of the tropical seaside plants, took all of an hour. By now it was getting really warm so I decided a cool shower was in order. This turned out to be a rather smelly affair. I don’t know whether it was sulphurous from the bore or from some other more sinister source! A little “nana nap” in the air-conditioned comfort of my room helped pass some of the rest of the afternoon.

A hot tropical beach to enjoy
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Before dinner we were shown a video which went through the process of turtle rearing on the island. They have an informative museum with good interpretation and exhibits. As there were about 30 people staying on the island for the night, we were broken up into groups of about 8 so that there would be minimal impact on the turtles that came ashore to lay their eggs. We were lucky to be in the first group which meant we would get to see the first turtle to come ashore. The last group may not get their chance until midnight or later!

Entrance to turtle conservation area
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As luck would have it, the first turtle turned up just after we had finished our dinner and she had decided that a spot only one hundred metres from the dining area would suit her just fine. She turned out to be quite a young individual. By the time we got to the site she had all but finished laying her eggs. We saw a couple of eggs fall and then it was time for her to cover them up. At this point we left.

However the rangers do not leave. They wait until the turtle leaves her nest to head back to the sea. Once she is well out of the way the rangers open the nest and take the eggs. This is for the good of the turtles, to assist in their conservation. The eggs are carefully counted (“our” turtle only laid 28 eggs on this occasion) and taken to the nursery where they are put in another sand hole surrounded by plastic mesh. Here they remain until they hatch in anything from 35 to 60 days, depending on the temperature of the sand. The plastic mesh and wire mesh fence which surrounds the whole nursery, provides the eggs with protection from monitor lizards, rats and birds who eagerly seek out eggs as tasty morsels.

'Our turtle' laying her eggs
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The next part of the experience involved the releasing of hatchlings which had hatched earlier that evening. We were given a bucket of scrambling individuals to tip onto the sand near the water’s edge. Thrashing like windmills, their flippers propelled them into the sea to an uncertain future. Their chances of survival are not good as it is estimated that only one in a hundred survive to maturity. It was still an exciting activity and I’m sure that some of my little fellows will live to maturity! I certainly hope so.

Eggs relocated into nursery hole for incubation
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It was still far too early to go to bed so a couple of cold Tiger beers and some pleasant chatter helped to round out what had been an eventful evening.