I have been eyeing to join the sea turtle conservation program in east coast of West Malaysia for many years. After researching a few programs, I finally decided to join SEATRU program (Sea Turtle Research Unit) of UMT, and I'm really glad I chose this, otherwise I won't meet all these amazing people! And the staffs are really knowledgeable (not sure about other programs). I think I registered around May'24. I selected the very last session before they close the islands for monsoon season, because of new ERP system in my workplace, and I was hoping that the system will stabilise by then. As it was towards the end of the nesting season, I was hoping to still be able to see some turtles.
I took leave on Friday (4th Oct) and flew to Kuala Terengganu (Sultan Mahmud Airport), reaching around 11am.
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| The airport building is simple yet has Malay architectural style, looks like Istana Melayu. |
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| Saw this flower while walking. First time seeing this kind. Giant Calotrope (calotropis gigantea). |
I reached my hotel early (check-in time is 3pm), but fortunately after a short wait, the receptionist allowed me to check in earlier. It was a simple room with single bed, and very thin wall. (I can hear the next door's guest snoring at night. π Luckily I can fall asleep easily.)
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| Outside of the hotel. It has restaurants and its own mini-mart. |
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| Nearby beach. Sunset, picnic, fishing, rocky beach. |
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| Enjoyed ikan bakar for dinner. |
The next day, again I walked to UMT instead of taking taxi. It took about 45 mins.
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| I was the first to arrive (around 8.00am?). There were many students at that time, and I was the only one with huge backpack and sleeping bag. Everyone was staring at me. After that, they entered the hall and I was alone. I was worried that I waited at the wrong place, so I sent a message into the Telegram group of SEATRU, and was reassured by Daus (whom I came to know later as one of the Rangers) that other volunteers and the van will arrive by 9.30am. We had some preliminary introduction while waiting. 3 of the girls in the pic (Erine, Xandra, and Sheron) are certified divers! |
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| Cats at the jetty. |
Boat journey to Chagar Hutang. Our 8 days without connection began here.
It was a nice trip, quite long (around 45 mins?). I was wishing that it never ends. π
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| But we must arrive in the end, for the next wonderful 8 days to unfold. We formed a human chain to pass our bags and our food supplies (rice, eggs, oil, veggies, chickens, bread, sugar, condensed milk, etc). |
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| Dining area, common area, kitchen, and sleeping area during night patrol duty.π The smaller table at the inner-left is only for rangers and interns; volunteers are not allowed. |
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| I slept on the first bed just in front of the door, upper-bunk. I like it as it's cool. |
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| Washrooms which we have to use the squeegee to sweep out the water. We can use the life jackets and snorkeling masks anytime until 3pm. (After that time, mother turtles that are planning to lay eggs that night might be surveying around the sea area, so we don't want to scare them away.) |
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| No snakes PLEASE! Excellent warning! π |
We started with briefing by Anwar & Mirul. Then we cooked our lunch (spaghetti bolognese). Then in the afternoon, Anwar briefed us how to do nest check, as we will need to do it starting the next morning.
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| This is the board from previous group. "Volunteer's activities" start around 5pm every day. |
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| This is the results of our slot. (20 landings, 10 nested) Total 939 nests this year (up to our slot ZB). Last year was 2000+, but this is expected, as turtles usually have 1-2 years gap between nesting years (depends on species, I believe this is only in Chagar Hutang's case). Next year should be busy, should I join again? π We're fortunate to have 1 hawksbill turtle nested in our slot, and at the very last night too! |
After 2-3 days, all of us started to get used to our daily routine and our roles. We were moving around and doing chores in a synchronised way, like a familiar household. Such as during meals, we could coordinate well in washing cutleries and distributing the rice. The guys would do the composting; Erine would wash dishes after meals (but we still helped); I would sweep and mop the floor from time to time (with help from Chee Hau and En Hui).
Below are our main activities throughout the 8 days and 7 nights.
1. Night patrol
As it was end of nesting season with less turtles, we only split to 2 groups instead of 3, and we didn't patrol until 6am. It depended on the instruction from the interns, if they predict that no more turtle will come, we could turn in for the night (ranging from 3am-5am). Some mornings when I checked the beach for turtle tracks, it seemed that the interns' prediction was right.
As it was end of nesting season with less turtles, we only split to 2 groups instead of 3, and we didn't patrol until 6am. It depended on the instruction from the interns, if they predict that no more turtle will come, we could turn in for the night (ranging from 3am-5am). Some mornings when I checked the beach for turtle tracks, it seemed that the interns' prediction was right.
- We learned how to recognise turtle tracks (difference of it going up/down). We also drew a horizontal line across the track after we've checked it, so that we can recognise when there's a new track (I can imagine it should be quite confusing during the peak season).
- Two types of turtles lay eggs on Chagar Hutang's 350m beach - green sea turtles (endangered) and hawksbill sea turtles (critically endangered). Green turtle has its name from the green fat found beneath its carapace (its shell), due to its diet strictly being seagrass, not from the colour of its carapace. Hawksbill is rarer in Chagar Hutang, its name comes from the shape of its beak. Compare to hawksbill, green turtles are bigger and are more used to having humans around. When the turtles are laying eggs, we are careful only to shine lights from their shell till their tail but not at their head, to prevent them from getting shocked and abandon laying. But after laying, we can usually shine at their face and even touch them to measure their carapace or check if there's any tagging at their front fippers. Green turtles are more relaxed when we're measuring their shells, and they move slowly back to the sea after laying. Hawksbill was trying to "run" to the sea when we wanted to measure its carapace and we had to use our strength to stop it from moving. π
- Red light is used during night patrol. Although it also has some impact of light pollution to the turtles (https://seaturtlespacecoast.org/sea-turtles-and-the-red-light-myth/), but it's better than white light. And the interns taught us how to shine it so that we won't disturb the turtles.
- Sometimes a turtle will land but leave without nesting, maybe due to disturbance or feeling discomfort. But usually the next day or later that same night, it will come again. When a hawksbill landed, we were so excited but we didn't dare to go close to see, worried of scaring it away. Only few volunteers and the interns went near to check on the turtle. Then we just laid on the sand while waiting for it to start chambering. The first day it landed, it moved around for 3 hours, digging around, but in the end, it left. As per Anwar & Mirul's saying, we were scammed by the turtle. π But the next day, it came and nested! It was raining that night. When the rain stopped and we went patrolling, we found that the turtle has already finished laying and was camouflaging. I think it was good that we missed to see it laying eggs, so it could lay without disturbance.
The Hawksbill form. - There are specific steps that the turtles do when nesting. For green turtles, it starts with Body Pitting > Chambering > Laying > Cover chamber > Camouflaging. Whereas for hawksbill, it doesn't body pit, it just start with chambering directly, so the depth of its nest is shallower than green turtle's. We use our arm as a rough measure (top/middle/bottom) - bottom means around the depth of the whole arm; middle means depth until elbow. We also learned to recognise what steps the turtles are doing from their actions.
- I had this question which keep bugging my mind: how do turtles learn the steps to perform before laying eggs? Is it in their DNA, since they don't have nurturing period like mammals? Or, do first-time mothers get advice from other female turtles inside the sea?
I asked Anwar & Mirul, but it seemed they misunderstood my question - they thought I was asking, how do we know if it's a first-time mother - and they replied, there's no difference, just that it might be more sensitive to noise/light.
When I tried to research further in internet, I can't find any articles that answer this question. I think this could be a good research question? Just to prove my theory. π But I think it'll be hard to research, as the years starting from the babies crawling to the sea until they come back to nest are known as the "lost years".
- Do sea turtles communicate among themselves?
- https://conserveturtles.org/information-sea-turtles-general-behavior/
- https://conserveturtles.org/information-sea-turtles-frequently-asked-questions/ - I was also curious why do sea turtles have shells that they cannot hide in, like tortoises. (https://www.turtleconservationsociety.org.my/why-do-turtles-have-shells/)
- Step 1: Body pitting - create a big crater for its body by using it's fippers and rotating it's Sometimes it will keep changing spots after body pitting, until it finds a suitable spot.
This video is Step 2: Chambering - using its back fippers so adeptly to scoop up the sand and make a really deep chamber for its eggs. They look so skilled and makes me wonder, from where do they learn this from?
Step 3: Laying eggs - https://youtu.be/6nfmfTJc3uM (had to upload via YouTube as it's an unsupported format by my computer. Thanks to a friend who recorded this). At this stage, if the location is good, we will quickly put a long string tied to a coral into the nest, then tie the string to a wooden stick to mark the location, this is called in-situ nest.
If the location is not good (e.g. if it's a favourite spot of nesting and other mother turtles might ruin the eggs / it's in lower ground and might get drown when monsoon comes), then we need to quickly "steal" the eggs while the mother is laying it. In some cases when it's hard to steal, then we mark with the coral string & wooden stick, and we'll dig the eggs out in the morning to relocate them.
"Stealing" eggs require some techniques. One of the back fippers' side will have an opening, and we must go from there. We mustn't touch the turtle and must be careful not to accidentally push sand into the hole. Some people can hold many eggs at once, but I only dare to take two at a time.Green turtle eggs which we relocated in the morning. Most of the time, we will relocate immediately at night, after "stealing" the eggs from the mother.
The egg shells are soft and flexible. Hawksbill's eggs are smaller.Step 5: Camouflaging - the turtle will violently toss sand around and maybe try to create another pit nearby, to camouflage the exact location of its nest. At this stage, we will leave the turtle to its own business and continue our patrol.Step 4: Covers chamber - using its back fippers to cover the chamber. The staff said that at this stage, usually the turtle will be in trance mode after it has laid eggs, due to hormone. So it's fine now for us to touch it, measure its carapace, and check for its tags at the armpits of its front fippers. (For hawksbill, it might have different behaviour. With the only one that we encounter, it tried to run away when we wanted to measure its carapace after it has covered its chamber.)Step 6: The turtle crawls back to the sea. - The interns told us a story of another turtle crashing into a turtle which was laying eggs from behind. They couldn't stop the turtles from crashing, so they had no choice but only to watch. The turtle that was in the midst of laying was startled and rushed back into the sea while laying its eggs along the way.
- This is a very meticulous way of relocating the nest (https://turtlesandtides.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/moving-a-turtle-nest/) - by building a chamber that mirrors the original one.
I found a research in Chagar Hutang itself (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319562X21003892) - surprisingly I can totally relate to everything the article says! Truly, real experience is the most valuable! The digging of the relocated nest is done by the ranger/intern. I guess they're trained on the dimension of the chamber, and it does look similar to the one in this article. In the article, it says in 2017, 36% of the nests were relocated. But this year, based on the board, it seems around 70% are relocated. Perhaps they've tested that the man-made nest is working well. My group had excavated an in-situ nest which is under vegetation, most of the eggs are bad... Hopefully we're on the right track of conservation. - We don't need to keep patrolling the beach. If there is no turtle, we patrol in the next hour. If there is turtle, we take note of the stage it's in and come back sooner. E.g. if it's body pitting, we'll check back after 30 mins. If it's chambering, then we'll stay by its side.
During patrolling gap, we usually chit chat or rest on tikar on the beach. If it's raining, we waited indoor until the rain stopped. Sometimes the rain poured heavily without much warning. The interns can recognise when rain is falling soon from the slight temperature change of the wind, and we'd quickly bring everything indoor.
We also played UK & US version of "Never have I ever" and Malaysia's version of the opposite. There's also many hilarious moment, like Chee Hau said "leg fingers" instead of toes, and even I was stunned, trying to figure out the right word, until Vicki from US corrected us. πSometimes we slept on the beach until the next morning. It's not very comfortable due to uneven surface of the sand, but it's a blissful way to wake up, seeing the sea first thing in the morning.
2. Nest check in the morning
In the morning, Mirul/Anwar will pass to us the forms of nests which are Day 45 or above. And we check the nests on a 3-day interval.
On Day 45: we only look for the location of the nests - which are marked with the wooden pole with the nest number. The whole 350m beach is divided into 35 sectors for easier pinpoint of the nests. Usually the turtles are not hatched/not ready yet, we don't need to do anything.
On Day 48: We dig the nest following the coral string. Sometimes we found baby turtles, and we need to check it's belly button, if it's still bulging and the egg yolk is still big, then we put them back into the nest and cover it up. Nests which are under shade will take longer to hatch.
If the babies are ready, we bring them out and store them in the "turtle coop", then we'll release them at night, when there are less predators. We release them in different trays and with distance in between, to increase their survival rate. (One batch might be a decoy to lure predators - the sharks. π’)
If the babies are ready, we bring them out and store them in the "turtle coop", then we'll release them at night, when there are less predators. We release them in different trays and with distance in between, to increase their survival rate. (One batch might be a decoy to lure predators - the sharks. π’)
Baby turtles coming out of the nest. This is the most wonderful and moving part of the job!
They're so active!! Them being able to flip over when they are upside down is a fitness test for them.
Sometimes we found deformed babies. This is due to too many (above 100), and the bottom turtles might get deformed...
Sometimes we found deformed babies. This is due to too many (above 100), and the bottom turtles might get deformed...
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| Flat yolk - the turtle is ready. |
They also found an albino turtle just recently before we arrived! They will keep it for around 3 years and then release it. As it's white, it'll be easily seen by predators and will be eaten. Thus, hoping that if we release it when it's bigger, it'll have higher chance of survival.
It eats seaweed and jellyfish.
It eats seaweed and jellyfish.
On Day 51 and 54: Again, we dig and check the nest. If we find that most of the babies are ready and active, we bring them out. Then we excavate the nest. Excavation is the most dreaded part of the job (but somehow on the 8th day, we kinda miss this and are willing to take on extra forms from the staff π). We have to face flies, sandflies, ants, crabs, maggots, and bad smell during excavation. We also learned to identify the reason of the rotten eggs - pipped, fungi, maggot, crab. Sometimes we found empty egg shells but no turtles. It means that the baby turtles have crawled out by themselves.
We have to count the rotten eggs and all the empty egg shells, to ensure that we excavate everything and not leave any in the hole. This is to ensure future eggs will not be contaminated.
The rotten eggs and egg shells are dumped in the Eggshell Station, which are happily devoured by monkeys, monitor lizards, and hermit crabs.
The rotten eggs and egg shells are dumped in the Eggshell Station, which are happily devoured by monkeys, monitor lizards, and hermit crabs.
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| Sorting and counting the eggs. The top part are rotten eggs due to fungi. Bottom part are empty egg shells. By excavating and counting, we can also know the hatched rate. |
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| This is called "pipped", which means the baby died in the egg. This type is the smelliest. |
Maggots and me excavating.
Dead sea turtle, attracting flies. It's really smelly.
3. Leisure activities
After nest check and before lunch, we went snorkeling, swimming, or kayak. We could also do these up until 3pm, but we usually stopped by lunch time, as it's too hot after that.
On 6th Oct, I cut my feet from snorkeling - kicked a coral as I was not wearing glasses in the sea. Luckily Vicki helped to give me first aid (she's an obstetrician!). Time passed so slow while I was limping around. Now that I check the dates, on that evening itself, I was already hiking to Prawn Spa, and the next day to Turtle's Rock. I'm amazed by how fast the wound healed, though it's quite deep!
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| This is on 12th Oct, 6 days after the incident. |
Many people got cut in they feet too. Plasters are definitely a must-bring item, and wearing shoes when patrolling at night is also needed. The interns were going around without shoes, even when hiking, and we were trying to follow them. But the beach is full of dead corals and some are sharp. Patrolling the 350m beach was slowly turning into a hell's torture in every step. π
I started water activity again on the 5th or 6th day. First time kayak by myself for such a long time. It's very nice. The others were snorkeling nearby, and I became their "taxi" to bring them back to the shore. These are some nice pics taken by other friends. ("Wash" your eyes with these beautiful pics after looking at my "disgusting" injury π)
- Play games (spy game, killer game). I don't really like killer game but spy game is ok.
- Brought a Japanese book there, thought I could study a bit before my Japanese exam in Dec, but I only read few pages, then slept at the pondok/hammock. I also read an e-book from my phone titled "Bullshit Jobs: A theory". This is more interesting π
and I managed to read more pages.
This is my most favourite spot to sleep in the afternoon. It's comfortable and cool. I can sleep for few hours soundly. - Listen to ghost stories from the ranger and interns. The previous batch before us was too noisy and Abang Man was not really happy with them. Abang Man (ranger) and Anwar (intern) saw a Yeti ghost peering from behind a tree just in front of the kitchen. Daus (ranger) wanted to see it and Abang Man told him, "close your eyes and see with your heart." He went to the kitchen and do so, but he said he only see pitch black. π So funny!
Anwar said one male volunteer saw a white lady ghost at the sea while patrolling the beach alone at night, and he quietly turned around and quickly walked back. Vicki said her grandmother, who is from Terengganu, told her the story of a white lady ghost too, who is rumoured to have lost her baby and will try to take your baby if you're pregnant. - Afternoon time is the best time to sweep and mop the floor, as the floor is dry and there's less activity which can cause wet floor, like cooking.
- One of the volunteers (Kar Leng) has a book which she started when she was on working holiday program in New Zealand. The question in the book is, what advice would you give to your younger self? This book kept us busy - we can read other people's writings and also think about what we should write. Many people even decorated their entries with drawings & designs!
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| Drawings by Sheron. |
- Anwar asked whether we will come again. Someone wrote in Kar Leng's book that she will not, because she wanted this to be the unique memory. If she comes again, there's bound to be comparison. The higher the expectation, the more the disappointment.
But for me, I would love to go again. I won't compare the company much (as I was mostly quiet and just observing). I would love to contribute my labour towards helping the program.
5. Volunteers activities at 5pm
- Prawn spa. I hiked there with my injured foot. I scrunched up a plastic bag to act as a shock absorber. Later on when hiking to Turtle's Rock, I learned that by folding the plastic bag nicely, it's even more comfortable.
Prawn spa is slightly more painful than fish spa. Luckily I was slightly downstream compare to the others (due to my leg injury), and the prawns are smaller. - Hiking to Turtle's Rock. It's a 30-minutes hike, but we spent some time at the 3 view points.
Start of the hike. First view point.
I was totally mesmerised by the waves hitting the rocks.2nd view point. It's called Turtle's Rock because of this rock shape.Another view of the Turtle's Rock. Mirul said that during the mating season, we can see turtles mating at the sea surface. Someone asked why they mate at the sea surface, not in the sea. Mirul said they will be out of breath and need to take in oxygen. π
Turtles can take in oxygen and stay in the sea for many hours! They can even lower their heart beat to reduce oxygen consumption. (Learned from a magazine on the dining table, which is also one of my pastimes.)3rd view point.
Few daredevils challenged this cliff. Mirul (intern who lead the hike) later went down at the right side and secretly climbed up to our side. After some photo shoots, they realised Mirul was gone and shouted for him. π They had to slowly trace back the original route. Luckily everyone is safe. Anyway, we had signed indemnity form and all our actions were our own responsibility.This is the point of view from the daredevils side. I didn't know the place I was at was so tall! I wonder from where did Mirul climb up to reach our side...
Mirul at the bottom.
I can sit there whole day just watching the waves. It's calming to see the waves crashing on the rocks, and water flowing down from the cracks like a mini waterfall.
Meanwhile, as I feel the violence of the waves, there is also respect for nature because our lives are so fragile in front of mother nature.End of the hike. - Gotong-royong - cleaning the coop, tying coral strings, erasing the marker pen ink on the wooden stick with thinner. I was involved in cleaning the coop. There are so many huge red ants... Hope they won't harm the baby turtles.
- Beach clean-up - this was more needed during early of the year, when the monsoon season just ended. Volunteers need to ensure a clean beach for the turtles to come and lay eggs.
The Amazing Company throughout the 8D7N!
Shrinking this section to make the post shorter, as it might only be interesting to me.
Shrinking this section to make the post shorter, as it might only be interesting to me.
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Dab Dab pose.    Time-lapse of stars (by Sheron).     |
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| Rangers and interns quarters are this side. |
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| Starting from the shoe rack area, no shoes are allowed to reduce sand indoor. |
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| A poster at the Outdoor Classroom. The wooden sticks in the poster are the markings of turtles' nests. A coral string is tied from the stick and lead into the base of the nest. (It gave me the feeling of cemetery, but I try to think positive, hoping for the best for the turtles. π ) |
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| Leatherback turtle which was once an icon of Terengganu (many leatherbacks laid eggs on Terengganu beach), has now become functionally extinct in Malaysia (meaning that it's extinct in Malaysia but still exists in other countries). People were taking their eggs for consumption, and with turtles' low survival rate of 1/1000, this species finally becomes extinct in Malaysia. |
Bidding farewell.
What I learned after this trip: ππ
- This is a much-needed trip after non-stop working even on weekends. Luckily I chose somewhere without any connection with outside world, otherwise I won't be able to fully rest. I think I'll make this my yearly activity, to go to at least one retreat per year, maybe to other conservation/volunteer/monastery program.
- After such a long time of only looking at screens, my eyes took some time to adjust to looking far, and also looking hard at night to scan for turtles. π After coming back to work, my eyes feel strained again, but too bad, this is part of my job. This is certainly a workplace injury which sadly we're not protected from. Unless I change my job... Farming or forest conservation work will be nice, I can look at the greens all the time.
