Jumping on the Turtle Bandwagon

In line with Turtle Conservation and this post from Michy's blog, I thought I'd do the same since I wrote an essay bout those marvellous globe-trotters anyway. Some facts. (Read the BOLDED fonts if ya lazy)
Alright, this was a table I used for my essay (Michelle used it too), and from what we see here, there are 7 extant (not extinct) species of sea turtles (some taxonomist say 8, with black and green sea turtles separate - it's not important) and their numbers aren't overwhelming no more.

Why us Malaysians SHOULD help in turtle conservation

• We screwed them up : As screwed as it sounds, it's actually true. Many T'ganu, East Malaysians, Kelantanese etc etc have been taking turtle eggs in their diets regularly. This greatly reduces the number of hatchlings that go to sea, which in nature already don't have a high survival rate. An estimation made was that only 1 in 1,000 hatchlings survive long enough to mate and nest, not very good huh? A clutch of eggs is about 100 and females nest about 4-6 times in the nesting season, give it a maximum of 600 eggs there. Not even enough for one to survive. Oh, recent findings say that turtle eggs have high heavy metal concentrations which are really toxic, and it causes cancer. (BE AFRAID)
  
• We are involved in their habitat destruction: Development, when uncontrolled, destroys their food source and habitats. An interesting fact here is that hatchlings actually head to sea when they hatch based on the light reflected from the sea, which makes it confusing for them when other light sources (made by us) shine at night. They actually head for light towers and other light sources AWAY from the sea *arghh* though this is being dealt with by turtle sanctuaries. When in desperate need, they stand at the water line and shine a torchlight at the hatchlings.
• Our Rubbish: We dump a lot of rubbish, and most pertinent here I'd say would be plastic bags. These gentle giants eat jelly fish, and floating plastic bags in the sea ain't something they're used to. They mistake em for jelly fish and eat em up, often in the long run, choking themselves to death. Reusable bags anyone?
• We hunt them and make legislations we don't practice: From the turtle trip I just came back from, we learnt that even after the ban of leatherback turtle egg consumption and sale was enforced, there still are unethical donkeys out there selling them in the market, as though they are above the law. Quote "Kami ni orang Terengganu, tak apa lah" (We're Terengganu people, it's alright). Nah ah.
• They're cute: Don't you want to continue seeing them getting up their beach with their flippers or gliding like big-shelled birds in the sea? I've yet to see one while snorkeling but that's the plan. I got plenty of turtle pictures and maybe I'll put up some when I'm free to convince ya =D
• They're living fossils: They've been around even before the Dinosaur (ROAR) era, my friends, more than 150-200 MILLION years ago. And they've done fairly well to survive this long, with their population decline only comin about this century. Now, now, would YOU and YOUR RACE like to be held accountable for the extinction of 200 MILLION YEAR OLD living fossils?

So If you think you wanna help, I've got a petition with me that you can sign to hopefully make our government enact and enforce better turtle conservation laws. Thus far, only SOME states (that don't really practice it) have legislations, and usually only the leatherback is protected. If you wanna sign it to do your part, contact:

me: kienz@hotmail.com
or michelle: monitorlizzie@hotmail.com

before Monday.

EVERY SIGNATURE COUNTS, SAVE EM TURTLES!

"I pledge NOT to eat turtle or terrapin eggs for the rest of my life"

Campaign by Turtle Research and Rehabilitation Group, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu.