Bintan Turtle

My photo
Lagoi, Kepulauan Riau, Indonesia
The turtle conservation initiative in Bintan Resorts started in 2004. There are only 1 or 2 nests a month found in the nesting season whereas in 1950's fishermen found 1 to 2 nests a night. The nesting season is from March to September. To date, more than 4000 turtle hatchlings released to the sea. What do we do? Save the turtle eggs, incubate the eggs in hatchery, release the hatchlings together with tourists, volunteers and villagers and give awareness to villagers and students from local schools in surrounding area. By saving them, there’s a hoping to see them more in the future

Sunday 12 July 2009

Survey at Pantai Pasir Panjang (Long White Beach)


A lot of sea turtles nesting on this beach.

We used binocular to see along the shore from boat. It's another way to find the turtle tracks. (Photo Below: The conservation rangers Bj,Q, and Rofiq who was mapping out the survey)


We made two teams to find turtle nests at different shores. We then recorded the turtle tracks we found, how many nests there are and how the condition of each nest is. Usually the cause why there are no eggs within the nests is known from the condition of the nests which is appeared.


after the long hot survey.... snorkeling was our choice to end up the day...



"Nah...snorkeling disini dulu sblm pulang..." (ylutiyan)


Thursday 9 July 2009

Green sea turtles

During our five years survey, our team once finally found Chelonia mydas (Green sea turtles) eggs on August 2008. We released the green-turtle babies on 19-9-08 at Banyu Biru Beach, Bintan, Kepulauan Riau.



The event was covered by one of our local newspaper. See for more photos and details at http://images.kompas.com/detail_news.php?id=9014&page=2


Monday 6 July 2009

Sea Turtle versus The Global Warming

How will "Global Warming" affect sea turtles?

The impact of such phenomenal climate change pervades every level of the environment. An increase in temperature of just 1ºC from global warming could eliminate the birth of male sea turtles, according to the recent study from the University of Exeter. A rise of 3º could lead to extreme levels of infant mortality and declines in nesting beaches. Changing the sex ratio of sea turtles will make saving these enigmatic creatures from the edge of extinction even harder...”(from http://www.euroturtle.org/27a.htm)

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Penyu dan Pemanasan Global

"...pemanasan global akan membuat suhu di berbagai belahan bumi naik. Bila lingkungan di sekitar tempat menetasnya tukik itu panas, maka ada potensi mereka menjadi betina semua, Proses penentuan jenis kelamin terjadi tiga minggu setelah induk penyu meletakkan telur di sarangnya itu, sangat dipengaruhi suhu. Dalam suhu lebih dari 29 derajat celcius, maka dipastikan jenis kelamin tukik akan menjadi betina semua. Tentu saja kalau betina semua, reproduksi penyu-penyu tersebut tentu akan sulit sekali " (from http://tribunbatam.co.id. "Penyu Bintan Hadapi Ancaman Pemanasan Global")


Thursday 2 July 2009

Turtle Release ! Were you there ?

Did you come to the beach yesterday? The first batch of Hawksbill hatchlings were released that day.... Bye bye babies, be strong.....

Below is a story from one of our volunteer, Soraya (20) a college student from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), who's doing her two months job-training program in Bintan...

Here's her experience.........

The Wonder of Nature

This is my first time in Bintan, I came here to attend “on the job training programme” at Nirwana Gardens Resort, one of many resorts in Lagoi, Bintan Island.

Since my major study is biology, especially ecology, I got job to take care about sea turtle conservation programme here. Actually, I knew nothing about sea turtles before I came here. Then I attend sea turtles training programme, got so many info about them.

There are two species of sea turtles that lay their eggs frequently in Bintan Island, Hawksbill turtle and Green turtle. I’ve already found 2 nests of Hawksbill turtle in June, 12th and 30th . It really makes me soo happy, because all my efforts paid off. I’ve done turtle survey with my team, walk along the beaches in the morning, on 4 a.m or 5 a.m, bring my flashlight, walk along sandy beach, or rocky beach sometimes, and i’m doing this 2-3 times a week.

When we found mommy turtle’s track, we followed it to her nests. She usually makes 2-3 nests, the real nest is only one, so we have to check it one by one using a stick and stab it carefully. When we found the real nest, we dig it, and relocated the eggs to our hatchery in Nirwana Gardens beach. We took the eggs one by one carefully because the eggs shouldn’t be rotated, put them in a bucket that covered with a little bit of sand, and bring them to our hatchery, where we have dig a hole as same as the real nest and place the eggs there.

And after 2 months, the eggs will hatch, the hatchlings will crawl up, out from their nest, walk on the beach to the sea. It’s very amazing if you can see it by yourself.

Yesterday, first of July, I just saw that moment, started from a little dig in their nest, then, one hatchling came out, showed its cute head first, and followed by other hatchlings. It’s a very very amazing moment. They’re always move their little legs, trying to crawl up and run to the sea. We put them in a bucket and released them on the beach.

When they finally reached the sand beach, they're starting to run ...and run to the open sea, keep swimming for 24 hours. I hope in another 20-30 years, one of them can go back and nesting here, in Bintan Island, again. Because the hatchlings have many predators waiting for them, from the sea and from the air. Hope they'll survive......

The Turtle-Release event like yesterday was a wonderful moment for me.....

I hope I can see that again........

(as written on 2-7-2009 by Soraya)