Rising sea turtle deaths may cause conservation efforts to fail

 

The number of dead adult sea turtles washing ashore is worrying Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) Institute of Oceanography and Environment (INOS) field research laboratory head Mohd Uzair Rusli.

He said that 26 years of research at the Chagar Hutang Turtle Research Station in Pulau Redang has shown that large mother turtles have a high reproductive capability.

"They have the capacity to produce a lot of eggs which would, in turn, increase the chances of their babies achieving maturity at 20 or 30 years old.

“What a pity it is for the country when there are consecutive mother turtle deaths as it will affect turtle population recovery,” Mohd Uzair said of the endangered marine creatures.

Over the past days since last Friday, six turtle deaths were reported along the east coast: two in Pulau Redang, two in Pulau Kapas and one each in Pulau Perhentian and Pulau Tioman.

Survival odds

On the survival odds of hatchlings, Mohd Uzair said it is better if there are a lot of eggs in the nest because once they hatch they can come together to dig themselves out, reducing energy use and enabling them to swim out to sea.

“The hatchlings take up to five or seven days, and half their energy, to push themselves out from depths of 50-80cm.

“Excessive energy use will cause exhaustion and put them at greater risk of predation during the early stages of their swim,” he said.

According to UMT’s latest research findings, which were published in the (bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal) Global Ecology and Biogeography on April 19, 2022, nest monitoring at Pulau Redang for nearly 30 years revealed an increase of large mother turtles nesting there.

However, Mohd Uzair fears that if more mother turtles continue to die, conservation efforts that have been carried out for tens of years would be for nothing.

- Bernama