TURTLE HATCHERY PORT DICKSON

On JANUARY 10, 2017, with the help of my parents I managed to organize a trip to the TURTLE HATCHERY at GLORY BEACH RESORT, PORT DICKSON. 
There were 70 of us in total & all of them were my home schooled friends.

I wanted to learn more about these beautiful creatures after I found a dead hawksbill turtle on the beach in Port Dickson in October 2016. I was very curious about these creatures and why they were known as endangered. 

There are 7 different species of sea turtles in the world. In Malaysia we have 4 types. They are the Green turtle, Hawksbill, Leatherback, Olive Ridley, 

They are endangered because they are caught for their meat,eggs and shell. Some die because of the pollution in the sea or get caught in the nets and drown.

Glory Beach resort has a small turtle hatchery jointly managed with the Department of Fisheries, Malaysia. Mr.Isaac Raj, the General Manager of the resort told us that it is part of their social responsibility awareness program to help save the turtles. Since 2010, hawksbill turtles have been landing on the beach (Tanjung Gemok) to lay their eggs. The hotel makes the effort to collect these eggs , incubates them, hatches them and releases them back into the sea when they are matured enough to survive. Most of the time the Resort buys these eggs at RM 2.50 to hatch them safely at the hatchery. The reason they do so is because the survival rate for the turtles is 1% so that is why so many eggs are needed to keep the population of turtles going.


Mr.Ramesh ,our guide knew a lot about the turtles and he was entertaining to listen to. He showed us the eggs, baby hatchling of various ages. We were able to hold them in our palms . 

We also 'met' two very beautiful turtles. One was a hawsbill and the other was a green turtle. The hawksbill had a narrow head, and sharp bird like beak The hawsbill shell was beautiful, like  a beautiful art piece. No wonder it is 'hunted' -to turn the shell into jewellery. The green turtle was bigger.  It was not green at all.It is actually black and more brown in color. The green is not on the shell but on its underbody and it was very light green.

We could see claws on the flippers so were careful not to get too close. The flippers are strong and powerful.The turtles reach maturity after 15 to 20 years so we were not able to tell if these were male or female turtles just yet.

This green turtle opened its mouth I could see that they had  'teeth' like a saw  and I was careful not to put my finger near it. Green turtles are herbivores and eat sea grass , seaweeds and algae while hawksbills are omnivores and eat sponges. 

After that we visited the Turtle Hut where baby turtles were swimming merrily and later to the hatchery where the eggs are hatched.

The highlight of the evening was releasing 3 baby turtles into the sea. I got to release one of them.We wished them all the best and hoped they would come back all grown up to lay their eggs and to keep the turtles population going.

                                     Me and the turtle I was about to release into the sea

                                     My friends Awwal, ,Adelene and myself with the turtles
                                     we were going to release into the sea.

                                Me with my dad,Mr.Isaac Raj, Ms.Yayi and Mr.Ramesh and who are the Turtle Savers

Why do we have to play our part in saving the turtles?

• Sea turtles are part of two vital ecosystems, beaches and marine systems. If sea turtles become extinct, both the marine and beach ecosystems will weaken
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• Sea turtles (leatherbacks) eat jellyfish, preventing the large “blooms” of jellyfish – including stinging jellyfish – that are increasingly wreaking havoc on fisheries, recreation and other maritime activities throughout the oceans.
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• Herbivores like the green sea turtle are important for maintaining the health of coral reefs. Without them eating algae, corals can be overgrown and die from the algae which out-competes them.
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• Sponges contain spicules (glass-like spines) and toxins which the hawksbills immune to, making less competition for this food source. They are also particular about the types of sponges they eat which gives rare sponges an opportunity to grow creating greater diversity on the reef.
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• If sea turtles go extinct, it will cause declines in all the species whose survival depends on healthy seagrass beds and coral reefs. That means that many marine species that humans harvest would be lost.