Have you read about what the Terengganu State Government intended to do with a whooping RM 5 million?! You haven’t?! Here:
KUALA TERENGGANU: The Terengganu government has allocated RM5mil to manage and conduct a satellite study on turtle migration this year.
State Agriculture and Regional Development Committee chairman Datuk Mohd Jidin Shafee said the study would involve several species and particularly the leatherback turtle which was beginning to become extinct.
“In this matter, the state need not rely on the private sector to sponsor the turtle migration study as we can come up with the budget ourselves,” he said here recently.
In a study done by the state through the Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Centre last year, four green turtles were attached with transmitters costing some RM8,000 each.
Mohd Jidin said that Vodafone from Britain contributed two of the transmitters, while the state government bought the others.
He said that the study was done to determine the turtles’ movements after laying their eggs, and it was discovered that the turtles from Terengganu had migrated to Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia.
“The area of Ma’Daerah in Kemaman will once again be the transmitter installation site. The exercise is expected to be held this September,” he said.
In a related development, he said that a portion of the RM5mil allocation would be spent on a breeding project of sea and river turtles, which were facing extinction due to fishing nets. – Bernama
Now, let me tell you why I think this RM 5 million will be wasted:
- Each transmitter costs about RM 8K. The articles says so. So tell me, how many turtles will they be able to track with that amount of money? 625 turtles. No kidding.
- How many turtles do we have in our waters? This I am not sure, though it is almost impossible to say that they are 600 of them.
- So, this Datuk also wanted to track leatherbacks, I read.. Hmm.. Guess how many leatherback turtles came up to nest last year? Only.One. This year? None.
- A study conducted by my Supervisor in 1993 already revealed that the post-nesting sea turtles DO migrate to Sabah, to the Philippines, to Indonesia. Duh.
- And least but not least, read this carefully: “A portion of the RM5mil allocation would be spent on a breeding project of sea and river turtles, which were facing extinction due to fishing nets.” And this is where I smell something VERY fishy:
- The so-called decision-makers NEVER had any meetings with the scientists to discuss the feasibility of such a project. They claimed that they “know-it-all”. And I wonder how many of our Datuks will still be around when the turtles are finally matured enough to breed, i.e. at 20-years of age *winks*
- And NOT all turtles survive up to 20-years of age, you know. Out of about 1,000 hatchlings, only a couple of them will make it. Which means to say that if the government is intending to raise and breed the turtles, the authorities will have to take care of, say, about 400,000 turtles from age 0 to age 20. No kidding, man.
- Kekkekeke.. (I find myself laughing at this point) I wonder if the authorities will be able to “plant” sooooo much seagrasses / seaweeds for the green turtles to last them up to 20-years-old. And will they also “plant” coral reefs to feed the hawksbills because they feed on sponges..?!
- What river turtles? At this point, do YOU still think our Datuk knows anything about our “river turtles”?!
- “… facing extinction due to fishing nets”?! Fishing nets??! I sooo want to LMAO. See how our Datuk conveniently forgot about the collection and consumption of the turtle eggs because “they are more nutritious than chicken eggs”?! Blaming the fishing nets for causing turtle mortalities. So freaking pathetic.
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In the world of South East Asian businesses:
1 million for Feasability Study
1 million for Pre Implementation Phase Study
2 million for lining the pockets of various parties through ‘yam cha’ events
990 thousand for actual Implementation Research (most of which will be handed friends of friends)
10 thousand for Implementation and certain failure
pelf: *sigh* You’d have to re-write that, Merv, because NO feasibility studies were conducted..
WA hahaha……………… true true true. Me and my lecturer was just talking about it. Man… really they waste our country money ( i mean our parents’ income tax). Haiyoh.. when ask why turtle facing extinction.. ? The will put all the blaim to Pukat (fishing net la.. or wateva net). Yeah.. true! they neva think of egg consumption. Somemore.. there is one person told me that tuntung egg taste better than turtle egg ..*ketionk!!* Ah…^.*
pelf: And we have Datuks TELLING us that they enjoyed eating turtle eggs. No kidding. Which explains why
we areI am very skeptical whenever some politicians poke their noses into our conservation work. And one of the posters printed by the DoF bears a glaringly big question on the economic importance of the terrapin eggs, and guess what is written in the poster? That the terrapin egg is 7 times more nutritious than the chicken egg. WTH?!Some Datuks never bothered to think before they say/act. Like the whole fine thing about Mykad. If they had a reasonable reason, they wouldn’t have just scrapped it when everyone complained. This proves how st*pid some Datuks are, going ahead without much thinking
pelf: Can’t agree more with you..
Sad thing is u can easily buy turtle eggs in any pasar at the east coast, the authority should spend some money on hiring EFFECTIVE enforcements.
pelf: EXACTLY!
Besides they could gazette more nesting beaches because right now, beaches that are NOT gazetted are NOT monitored. And when asked, those people who sell turtle eggs in the market could easily say that the eggs were NOT collected from any gazetted beaches.. But how much of it true, I don’t know.. *shrugs*
OH my….. really.. wat’s goin on?! One moment.. they (Datuks or politicians) will say.. ah huh… must protect the endangered species.. then at the back.. wah haaha… enak betul… telur tuntung or penyu (with evil smile/ laugh). Aiseh… today one of my friend ask WHy WHy La must protect/ conserve turtle? Man.. really cannot stand.. (beh tahan..!!). Anyway… aiyoh..=(
pelf: Girl, relax..
Because its a viable means of gaining political mileage.Quickest way to conservationist votes:-Hug a tree.Quickest way to gain conservationist votes AND look very ‘Terengganu’-ish in the process- Hug a turtle.
pelf: You are so so so right, man.. Cis..