The Uncommon Hawksbill Turtle
Finds A Home On The West Coast

Hatching a Hawksbill Turtle Revival in the Straits of Malacca

By Rick Gregory

Malacca is the west coast holdout for hawksbill turtles. Yes, the other Malaysian coastline.

The beaches of Terengganu, Pulau Tioman, Pulau Redang and Sabah are all well known destinations for the country's magnificent quartet of sea turtles. And after years of inattention and even less research, the other coast is finally getting a chance to illustrate its role in securing the nation's marine turtle biodiversity.

Starting in 2003, WWF Malaysia hooked up with the Malacca Department of Fisheries to find out why efforts to protect the hawksbill turtle were not as fruitful as hatchery counterparts on the east coast. But a comprehensive review of the problems is beginning to lead to positive solutions.

Hawksbill sea turtles, so named for their beak-like mouth, historically average 200 to 300 nests each year along the Malaccan coast. Only Sabah with up to 600 nests per year accounts for more hawksbill turtles; while Johor sees less than 100 and Terengganu adds only a paltry few dozen.

Fisheries data from the past few decades shows fluctuations in number of nests and a consistently poor hatching rate at roughly 35%.

Malacca’s coastline is divided into two distinct ecological zones. The southern part is speckled with mangroves, while the northern portion is open beachfront ideal for turtle nestings.

Two key areas of concern are the twenty kilometres stretching from Sungai Linggi on the Negri Sembilan border southwards and the small haven of Pulau Upeh just seven nautical miles from shore. The future for the hawksbill turtle in Peninsular Malaysia relies heavily on these coastal land masses.

So far the cooperative effort is already proving to show results. According to the Malacca Fisheries, as reported in the New Straits Times, licensed egg collectors have already increased hawksbill turtle egg totals by 43% from 2003 to 2004. And amazingly the hatching rate has nearly doubled to 59%.

So now there are more turtle eggs and more turtle hatchlings. How did this turnaround happen in just one year?

A study by WWF Malaysia pinpointed two major problems: egg handling techniques and hatchery management practices.

Too much hand-holding disturbs egg embryos and causes premature death. Nowadays collectors travel to Pulau Upeh each morning to harvest eggs that are stored in styrofoam boxes at home for one month before sending them to the hatchery.

Collectors work at night when hawksbill turtles land and lay eggs on the beach. With no urgency to get to the hatchery, eggs usually arrived later in the day in dried out conditions. Without any staff available after dark, night time hatchlings were left to wait until morning to be released, after already using up their natural get-to-the-sea energy reserves.

Hatchery managers also realized that the sand for egg incubation needs to be changed every year. Sand is just like crop soil in this instance, whereby, using the same beach area depletes certain properties or infuses the ground with disease or bacteria that hinders better hatching rates.

The early successes do not mean that all the problems are solved. “We still need to reduce illegal egg collection by local communities,” says Lau Min Min, WWF Malaysia’s project officer. “And reduce light pollution from chalets and houses.”

The Malacca Department of Fisheries uses a permit system whereby licenses are bought each season and collectors sell back the eggs at RM 1 each. Despite a 100% buy-back plan, and with restrictions against selling any in the market, only about half the total eggs collected find safe placing in the hatchery.

Many villagers, whom believe turtle eggs are aphrodisiacs or cure illnesses, roam the beaches during the nesting season and gather eggs to eat or sell. Licensed collectors are powerless to stop them and the authorities lack staff for night patrols.

Development and erosion along the beach front are two other concerns. Resorts, tourist facilities and street lights all add up to clog turtle landing sites and fill the sky with artificial light. Even cement spikes and rocks constructed to prevent coastal erosion, unfortunately, act as barriers to the beach for nesting turtles.

And even worse, new born turtle hatchlings are often confused by bright lights; they turn towards land instead of heading to the safety of the sea.

For the Fisheries Department and WWF Malaysia, their mutual work is just the start of better things to come. To provide long-term security for hawksbill turtles the aim is to follow-up research and management strategies with community education and habitat protection by establishing sanctuaries.

It may be a strange twist of fate that we don’t know where hawksbill turtles migrate after nesting on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

But that’s not the main problem as long as these denizens of the deep seas return to Malacca each year to give us another look.

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