Neutralise poachers toprotecfturtles B P,'-.<f·Lf· )..0 IS 10' . . .' I CELEBRATED my 58th birthday on. November 25 last year at Damanda Cafe in Taman Suria Pehiduk. Once aga,in, familiar faces were . smiling around me, my family, members of the Bosi. clan, cousins, Penampang Lions Club members, political comrades and friends. I had decided that as .one grows older,one lllust never forget to the turtles. Probably millions of celebrate one'sbirthday. If you hatchlings have been released canmake a big one by all means from turtle . conservation do it. Why Damanda cafe? Doris, .islands in Sabah safely to the the owner is a new found friend sea. How many percent will and a splendid cook. As always' return to their nesting beach? Oswald Manggas entertained us Pr;obably, just 1 to 2%. For with his two-piece band, and thi,s decades they migrate acr.oss the timegettingahelpinghandfrom .ocean, feeding into maturity. On their return to their nesting . Edmund Wong with his guitar. In Genesis 6:3 because of the ,beaches, the males and females wickedness of Mankind, God . mate and the females go ashore said, ~'I will not allow people to' to lay eggs. The males never see live forever; they areinortal. the sandy beaches anymore; From now.on theY wilUive no This is the pattern.or life cycle of sea turtle. longer than 120 years." There are several species of I read in the paper that the longest living .person was a sea turtles. Sabah has more of Japanese, who has justdied ,at. the Greens and Hawksbills. In .the age of 117 Years. If you ask general, they live up to 80 years. Tan Sri Simon Sipaunaboutage, Sea turtles live a challenging he will tell you that attaining the life. They are predated from ageof60 IS an achievement, and hatchlings t.o adultho.od. The thereafter every day is a:b.onus. adults can die fr.om eatin.g After seeingwpat old age will . plastic wastes which they think and can do to\a person, I am are jellyfish.' They can get inclined to say that a quality life hooked on long· linings or line is what we seek. A quality life in fishing and drown in trawler's your ripe old age is the answer nets and from aband.oned. to life. !tcannot be denied that fish nets. Others are killed a spiritual quality life is the orinjured by propellers. The ultimate. worse predicament is from The Sabah State Legislative turtle ,poachers who are after Assembly had just sat for the their meat and tortoise shells. ' Turtle poachers 'know that third session in April. As' a party whip, I was extremely the reptiles will be. found elated to see the much improved around islands. where they my lay. eggs. Besides "stealing" performances from comrades, Chan~oong Hin (Sri. their eggs, the poor creatures Tanjung),andJunzWong(Likas).', are also catered away to be For the latter, it was backto the slaughtered for their meat. In assembly after serving his six- other cases, they are S.old to m.onth suspension without pay. foreign vessels alive. Catching On this note, Junz is challenging the males with nets is quite the Speaker and government on easy given that they w.ould be their action against him. The swimming a'round the islands court is expected to rule on this mating while the females go to case, . and naturally we look beaches to lay eggs. forward to a decision in Junz's Turtle conservation is a global effort. The.hatchlings fav.our. When I started to continue travel 'around the globe on writing on the subject of age, specific migration route bef.ore I decided to focus on the sea .r eturning to the beaches their turtles. When hundreds were mothers have deposited them. slaughtered mercilessly in the They need to be protected all islands.offKudat with gruesome. along the route. . pictures of the massacre, I felt The protection is crucial numb. The publicity led the to ensure they would finally government to make promise to 'arrive' back to their nesting take action to tackle the poachers. beaches. It takes decades to When another massacre took reach sexual maturity; So ifthe \>lace again recently offKudat, turtle poachers are not engaged 1think .enough is enough. The and neutralised, the efforts of IDvernmenthas to do something, conservation by Sabah Parks, more promises. . BMI and turtle conservation . \ raised the matter in the organisations in other countries A~embly and engaged with the' would be futile. .. Ch,ef Minister directly on this As I have strongly stated in issie. Again, the Chief Minister my press statemen~ and my and Minister .of Tourism and address in the Sabah Assembly, Env:ronment promised to d.o turtle poachers must be something. I asked the Chief . countered vigorously. Are we Miniszer, as chairman ofsecurity going to enforce the installation to getRSSCom's help to curb this of the turtle e~udi:hg device (TED)? The succe'ssful turtle turtle~oachingactivity. After all, theViholeseaboardalongthe c.onservation here has made -east coas\fromthe southeast to . Sabah ·known to the world. the porth,s under ESSZ.one. If People are coming t.o Sabah to ESSCom ctnnot neutralise this " see for themselves the turtles, turtle poacling, then n.othing swhn with them and not .only and nobody lan. . participate but also donate Sea turtle&,are very gentle generously t.owards the turtle reptiles"ven gracious and. conservation program. beautifulcre~ures indeed~ Sea turtle is a major tourist . Sabah Parks ald the Borneo 'attraction. I said it before and Marine InstitUce (BMI) at I say it again, do we want to be Vniversiti . Malaysia Sabah the country that contributes' .(VMS) have been ~rking hard towards the failure of turtle in protecting and Cli>n~erving conservation? ri, \