Turtles of Sabah & PNG
Just added a couple more galleries, this time featuring turtlesfrom the Turtle Islands here in Sabah, Malaysia and from Lae in Papua New Guinea. The Turtle Islands area is one of the best in South East Asia to see green and hawksbill turtles coming up to nest. Myself and Simon Enderby had permission from Sabah Parks to use lights during the shoot as they are very strict on what visitors can or cannot do. Even so, we were not allowed anywhere near the turtles until they had started to actually lay - the females are likely to turn around and head back to sea if they are disturbed whilst looking for or digging their nests.
Once the eggs have been laid, the rangers collect and place them in a fenced-in hatchery to stop monitor lizards and other nesting turtles from digging up the eggs. The artificial ‘nests’ are dug to a specific depth because unusually, the sex of the hatchling turtles depends on the temperature at which the eggs were incubated. If the nest is too shallow or too deep, the eggs all emerge either male or female. In nature, turtles don’t all dig their nests at exactly the same depth, ensuring a mix of sexes. In the hatchery, half the nests are exposed to the sun and half are in the shade - enough variation in temperature to ensure an even mix of male and female young.
The trip to the Turtle Islands was followed by a visit to Lae in PNG. The beaches around Kamiali have some of the highest densities of nesting pacific leatherbacks ever recorded. Unfortunately, because the eggs are collected for food in most other areas, and so many of the adults die because of long-liners, trawling and pollution, the population of these huge creatures has crashed - only 4,000 are thought to remain in the Pacific. The Huon Coastline Leatherback Monitoring Programme employs local rangers to count and tag the nesting females, as well as protect the nests from hunting dogs. They also have a dance troupe which tours the coastline educating the young and old alike and explaining why the turtles should be conserved.