"AnnA_NyE"

Pusat Penetasan Penyu. 

Turtles in Malaysia are still quite common. That is to say, they are still to be found in the wild. There are two kinds of turtles in Malaysia: land and marine turtles. When I am going around on my bicycle, I do sometimes find land turtles but they are hard to spot since they're small, about 10 to 15 cm.

The farm in Segari is specialized in marine turtles. There are 7 species of Marine turtles in the world. 4 of them lay their eggs on the Malaysian beaches. These are: the leaderback turtles, hawksbill turtle, olive ridley turtle and the green turtle.

Pasir Panjang Beach near Segari is the main breeding ground for these turtles in Perak. Since turtles are an endangered species, the Malaysian Department of Fisheries have set up a project to help the turtles to survive the threats of extinction. This excellent initiative all started in 1990.

Entrance of the Turtle Breeding Station in Segari

There are quite a few dangers in the life of the turtles apart of the natural ones. Fishing is one of the dangers, spoiled oil and rubbish in the sea is another one. Turtle eggs are still delicacy for many people who do not care the value of a living endangered species.

The magic of a full grown turtle in the basins of the Turtle Breeding station Segari

Saving a turtle

Talk about nets. As you reader maybe know, I do some diving at Pulau Sembilan. It's a beautiful place for diving. Once in a while you see marine turtles in the water. During one of our dives, we found a new lost fishing net with a turtle trapped in it. The net was probably lost by the fishermen but it was not yet absorbed by the the sea environment.

Inside the net were a marine turtle and a crab. We took the opportunity to free both of them. No camera was available so I can't show you what it looked like. But one thing I can assure you, it was a good feeling to free these two trapped animals.