Turtle Release in Segiling Village

Finally, Segiling villagers, who were a turtle eggs collector before, now help us in saving turtle eggs. They have their own hatchery and save the turtle nests they found while fishing.

In total 141 hawksbill turtle hatchlings were released to the sea on 15 and 26 August 2010 by them. Head of Forestry and Agriculture Dept, Bintan District and staffs were also attended one this turtle release.

PT. BRC started approaching Segiling Village since 2005. We also taught students in Junior and Senior High School in surrounding about marine ecology, specially, turtle conservation. In hope, these children spread their knowledge to their parents.
Since 2009, Segiling Villagers were participated actively in this program.

You can find the article in our local newspaper.
Please visit :
http://kepri.antaranews.com/berita/13857/brc-dan-masyarakat-selamatkan-penyu-dari-kepunahan
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Preliminary Study on Sea Turtles in Bintan Island, Riau Archipelago, Indonesia

Marine Turtle Newsletter 119:13-14, © 2008

C.K. Winata, A. Nadina & M. Rofik
Research and Development Dept., Environmental & Health Division

Six out of seven species of sea turtles in the world live in Indonesia. All of them are under the Indonesian law protection (Act. no. 5 1990 re Conservation of Nature Resource and its Ecosystem; Government Regulation no. 7 1990 re Conservation Species of Flora & Fauna) and are protected by international trade by CITES (Convention of International Trade on Endangered Species). According to local people in Bintan, one could easily find 2 nests each evening in the nesting season of 1950s. However, in recent years only few nests have been observed on the beaches. To better characterize the population, we initiated a survey along Bintan Resorts coastline with two objectives: the identification of potential nesting beaches and nesting season in Bintan Resorts; and the identification of threats at nesting sites.

Bintan is the largest island among many in the Province of Riau Archipelago, located just south of Singapore. Bintan Resorts is located at the northern part (01.17° to 01.20° N and 104.30° to 104.58° E) and comprises 23,000 hectares of area, of which 3,000 hectares have already been developed. Within the resorts, there are more than 50 kilometers of white sandy beach (Figure 1). Between 2004 and 2006, we conducted ground surveys along beaches within Bintan Resorts at least once every two weeks. Between March and October, the frequency of patrols increased to 2-3 times a week on Pasir Panjang beach (01.1833°N, 104.1942°E; site 4 in Figure 1). All turtle tracks, nests, eggs, and egg shells were recorded, following Schroeder & Murphy (1999). In some cases, we relocated freshly laid nests to 3x5 m hatchery enclosures on more protected areas of beaches, for safe incubation.

Figure 1. Map of Bintan Island, with four nesting areas identified within the Bintan Resorts Area (map source: Bintan Resorts website. used with permission).

Within the Bintan Resort, we identified four nesting beaches where both hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) laid nests (Figure 1). Hawksbill turtles were the most common species nesting on the four beaches, with most nesting activities occurring between March and September (Figure 2). No nests were observed between November and February, which coincides with the monsoon season in Bintan. The phenology of sea turtle nesting in Bintan is similar to that reported for nearby Tembelan Island (February to May) and Johor, Malaysia (March to August) (Ali et al. 2004). Although the survey design did not allow us to fully monitor all nesting activities, it appeared that nesting density was greatest on Pasir Panjang beach.

Figure 2. Number of turtle tracks counted per month at the four nesting sites being monitored within Bintan Resorts, on Bintan Island, Indonesia.

When we began our monitoring project in 2004, we found that >90% of observed nests had been collected by local people for consumption. Given the anthropogenic pressures on sea turtle nests in the area and the logistical challenge of trying to monitor widely dispersed beaches, starting in 2005 we used hatcheries to protect some incubating eggs. In 2005, there were 550 hawksbill hatchlings produced from 5 nests in the hatchery (85% successful hatching rate) that we released to the ocean. In 2006, 1224 hawksbill hatchlings were produced in the hatchery (80% hatching rate) and released to the ocean. We invited tourists and local villagers to the hatchling releases to learn more about sea turtles and conservation. In addition, we disseminated information materials about sea turtle biology and conservation, though direct conversations and the distribution of calendars, leaflets and comic books. We noted that the percentage of turtle nests collected by locals declined to 61% in 2005 and decreased further to 33% in 2006.

We have been encouraged by our efforts that we can not only protect sea turtle nests on Bintan but also raise awareness of sea turtle conservation in local villages. We anticipate that we will be able to more actively engage local people in our project, thereby increasing its effectiveness.

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Acknowledgements: We thank to Professor C.H. Diong for supervising and sharing valuable advice. Our sincere thanks to Douglas Hykle, M. Halim and W. Andyana for their inputs, Alang-alang Sea Sport Centre who helped in logistics and in checking turtle tracks, Ranan Samanya for supervising our projects. This study would not be possible without a PT. Bintan Resort Cakrawala grant.

ALI, A., Z. TALIB, M.M. ISA, S.A. RAZAK & N.A. ZAKARIA. 2004. A Guide to set up and manage sea turtles hatcheries in the Southeast Asian region. Marine Fishery Resources Development and Management Department - Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre. 60pp.

SCHROEDER, B. & S. MURPHY. 1999. Population surveys (ground and aerial) on nesting beaches. In: K. L. Eckert, K.A. Bjorndal, F.A. Abreu-Grobois & M. Donnelly (Eds) Research and Management Techniques for the Conservation of Sea Turtles. IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group Publication No. 4, pp. 45-55.

Our Sea Turtle Conservation Program

Indonesian Resort Helps to Spread Conservation Message

7 Jul 2006

Indonesian resort located close to the thriving metropolis of Singapore is trying to do its part for marine turtle conservation, as the reported by the resort's senior manager for environment and health.

This week, PT. Bintan Resort Cakrawala together with Nirwana Gardens Resort released 81 turtle hatchlings to the sea. The release of the hawksbill hatchlings was part of two-year old programme of the resort's Environmental and Health Division, which is attempting to bring back the old glorious days of turtles in the '50s along the northern coastline of Bintan Island.

Understanding that these turtles are an endangered species, an initiative was started to try to restore the turtle population to at least double from what Bintan has today. Backed by Bintan Resorts' vision on environmental protection and management, the project was supported all the way to the top management. It is also hoped that this initiative can, at a later stage, be added to its ecotourism activities.

In 2005, 550 hatchlings were successfully released. This year to date, 296 hatchlings were already released to the sea from a total of 1,127 collected so far. The hatching success rate has varied between 70 - 90%, depending on several environmental factors.

Said Vice President Director B.G. Chin Chow Yoon: "This initiative is a proof that our concern and commitment to environmental protection is not limited to mitigation environmental controls, such as STPs and solid waste management."

While it is still early to describe it as a success, the programme definitely has shown a high potential for raising public awareness, and has also shown that resorts can also contribute to the protection of endangered species.

Source: RS on http://www.ioseaturtles.org/