pelf-ism is contagious

I was running through the State of the World’s Sea Turtles (SWoT) report when I stumbled upon this advertisement.

Guys, dont wet your keyboards, OK? I should NOT be held liable, muaahhaah

Baring the truth for turtles

Throughout Latin America and the world, aphrodiasiacal properties are attributed to sea turtle products, especially turtle eggs. Such beliefs represent an enormous hazard, as they fuel egg harvest and illegal trade in sea turtle products.

To combat this, the famous Argentine model Dorismar donated her time and celebrity status to a creative new campaign to say “My man doesn’t need turtle eggs.. because he knows they do not make him more potent.” Launched in June 2005 by non-profit groups like WiLDCOAST (California, USA) and Fondo de Educacion Ambiental (Environmental Education Fund, Mexico), the campaign is appearing on billboards, at bus stops, on TV, in magazines throughout Mexico and the USA, at North American concerts of famed Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte, and in all Mexican markets where the illegal trade takes place.

The advertisements have fueled public debate that has gained the attention of readers everywhere - including those of the New York Times, the London Times, Associated Press, and Reuters and of 103 other newspapers and magazines in eight languages and more than 130 global websites (now 131).

- SWoT Report, Volume 1

WOW.

I know. I should have blogged about this earlier but was too caught up with the Blogathon. And then the trip back home to Melaka. And then the piling workload upon my return. Three excuses enough or not?

Hhehehe

Remember the day I broke my windscreen? No, I didn’t break it, somebody else did, or rather SOMETHING else did. Yea, we were on our way to the State Museum to witness the official opening ceremony of the 2-month-long exhibition on “turtles”.

The official opening ceremony was conducted at the balcony on the first floor of the museum. I had never been to the museum prior to this visit, and I had NO idea how big it was (I still have no idea). Some VIPs gave some long-winded speeches which I believed nobody really paid much attention to, considering the majority of the audience were school kids from nearby primary schools.

After the speeches and the souvenir-giving ceremony, we were all ushered into the main display room where all the turtle exhibits were put up. BIG MISTAKE. The school kids were practically pushing each other and some smaller sized ones were being pushed against poster panels. There were just too many kids running around in the display room and they were talking yelling noisily and touching many of the specimens. Didn’t they know that the specimens on display were NOT to be touched?!

Some of the bigger posters that document the ancient relationship between turtles and human beings were put on display. You would be as amazed as I was when I read those poems and what-nots. The locals, despite the traditional practice of consuming turtle eggs, have a very close-knit relationship with the turtles *rolls eyes* But what really caught my attention was this one st*pid poster produced by a government agency. On the top of the A0-sized poster was a clear-cut question “Why should we conserve the terrapins?” and following this question was a list of st*pid answers, but the only one I remember was “Because a terrapin egg contains nutrients as much as 7 times that of a chicken egg.” *smacks forehead*

Hello?! I thought we are all on the same boat, i.e. trying to educate the public on the importance of conserving the turtles so that they do NOT consume them?!

This skeleton was borrowed from my Supervisor, as well as quite a number of other specimens and posters. The museum authorities did not put up a “DO NOT TOUCH” sign. Neither did they make a cover for all these specimens. The school kids were seen touching the skeleton and pushing against the perspex casing that I had to stand there to warn them to keep their hands off the specimens.

The collectibles that were put on display was almost as big as my own personal collection But then again, I am not sure if I would be willing to lend them my personal collection because like it or not, sometimes the things that we lend do NOT come back to us.

The above picture shows some of the tagging equipments used in tagging the sea turtles. The turtles are tagged to differentiate each and every one of them so that their movement, behaviour and survival (or mortality) can be observed and recorded. It is basically the same as to why your parents name you. If you cannot think of a reason now, I’ll give you one: to differentiate between your siblings and you *winks* If not, what? Do you think it is easy to come up with a name that your child will NEVER regret for the rest of his/her life? Kekekeke The sea turtles are usually tagged on both front flippers because the probability of losing both is lower. Scientists are smart, no?

And this shows a Turtle Excluder Device, or commonly known as T.E.D. - not her husband Ted though *winks* It serves to exclude turtles expecially if they are caught in trawl nets. There is an opening at the end of the net (on the left in the picture) that is big enough for the turtles to swim out. Another smart invention, huh? But unfortunately we are NOT using it in Malaysia due to its high cost and the fact that we Malaysians prefer to use illegal nets, like the large-mesh sunken gill net.

The leatherbacks is the LARGEST extant turtle that roams the world’s oceans. It is only right that leatherback eggs are also the largest among the remaining 7 species, no? And yea, no prizes for correctly guessing the smallest species of sea turtles

Some live specimens were also displayed. Shown in the above picture are green turtle hatchlings. We went downstairs for some refreshments because we thought that there would be some food left for us. Another BIG MISTAKE.

Anyway, the turtle exhibition will be opened to the public until September 5th. Anyone is interested? *smiles*

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.