Turtles galore

Turtle nesting at TRACC is commonplace,  with a nest almost every week through the year, there is a great spectacle of National Geographic proportions happening all the time. This year 2016, we have had nesting turtles since January and yesterday (22-09-2016) in a stroke of good fortune, we had two females emerge to nest within a few metres and a few minutes of each other.

Moving 100+kg across the sand on your belly is hard work.

  Standing within metres of a nesting female as she scrabbles through the bushes puts wild life and wild places into perspective.  For me, its amazing that all TRACC staff and volunteers can get up close to real endangered species that have been on the planet for millions of years.  These are real experiences of life on the planet - upclose and personal, rather than images carried by the internet to millions of people.


A short distance down the beach from the TRACC camp and it is easy to imagine that Sir David Attenborough is also on the beach - talking to the cameras that will carry the images of prehistoric reptiles across the world.

Chambering involves digging with the back flippers.

Volunteers and students who are seeing these amazing creatures for the first few times are always suitably impressed but the excitement for the staff varies in intensity depending on how much sand the turtle throws.  It is always a balance, shower at the end of a diving  day, or wait to shower after being covered in sand and turtle mucus.  There is still a great sense of achievement as the new turtle nest is dug in the hatchery where the eggs will be safe until the hatchlings are released to run down the sand to the sea.

Collecting the eggs into the bucket

We are so lucky to have these opportunities,  a few years ago getting to Pom Pom Island and turtle nesting beaches was a logistical nightmare.  Now transport and access is easy, our role is to balance the needs of the turtles so that tourism and development actually benefits these wonderful reptiles.

A job well done, eggs safely into the hatchery. 

 More

Turtle Hatching on Pom Pom | TRACC Borneo Volunteers

 

 

Turtle Nesting on Pom Pom Island | TRACC Borneo Volunteers

 

A typical day as a turtle volunteer | TRACC Borneo Volunteers

 

 

 

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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity please check out our website tracc.org or e-mail iinfo@tracc-borneo.org

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Turtle, shark or Reef conservation would not be possible without the generous financial support. We thank GEF/SPG for Malaysia who are helping our community activities, and coralreefcare.com who generously provide materials to build more reefs.   

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow our projects on facebook

Mataking exploration

Yesterday we travelled to Mataking and dived on the far side of the islands, it was a turtle mecca there, we saw 6-7 before we even started the dive, however the number of fish was much lower than at Pom Pom and overall the dive was no less entertaining than most dive at Pom Pom.



A few days ago in the afternoon we did a fish survey from the Pom Pom Northtip jetty where I saw my first Hawksbill of this trip, 4 Green Turtles and a meter long Bumphead parrot fish hiding under a large coral. 

The marine life is great and so many turtles.

Paul Fadden Aug 2016

Turtle Nesting on Pom Pom Island

The Return to the Ocean

This week, the first turtle of the season clambered onto the beach just outside of TRACC to lay her many eggs. As we sat in the communal area, number 4, waiting for dinner we were alerted to unusual activity by the steady bark of the camp dog Monsoon. Curious about the barking Paul went out to check out the scene, triumphantly returning with news of turtle tracks just up the beach. Equipped with red headlamps and the knowledge of Professor Steve, the camp went out to find a large, old and impressive green turtle well hidden beneath the spiky underbrush.

Turtles are aged through the length of the shell, with about 1-2 cm equaling 1 year, this one measuring 1 meter from shell tip to tip was a little less then 100 years old when accounting for her initial 2-4 cm hatchling shell.

Oblivious, as most sea creatures are to red and green light as they have no need to distinguish between it at the depths they spend most of their lives where those colors don’t reach, we watched her under the red glow of a headlamp. The initial hole was dug with the front flippers with much crashing of undergrowth. The next stage was chambering where she dug a smaller hole at the bottom of the pit.  Steadily she used one rear flipper then another rocking her body to and fro to dig her hole into the sand. She folded in the edges of her hind flippers to create a perfect bowl shaped shovel and continued the hard work of making a deeper nest. When she could no longer reach the bottom of her egg chamber, she moved to position her hind flippers over the hole.

Laying Eggs in the Underbrush

It’s usual for a turtle to lay between 80 and 100 eggs, 3-7 times each year and the range is thought to be between about 60 and 120. When satisfied with its size and depth, she began to lay her approximate 140 eggs in what we believe to be her first nest of the season.

After laying her eggs she filled her nest with sand to cover and incubate the eggs, and then tossed

sand and brush over the nest with her front flippers, to hide the nest. Becoming tired, she slowed more often to rest during this process, providing a chance for the A-level marine science students to practice some of their data collection skills and measure the turtles shell height and width – the standard measurements used to determine size and age. The resting period of our turtle friend also gave the team from Pom Pom resort, which has the official privilege to gather and safely incubate the eggs away from the danger of poachers and natural scavengers, a chance to begin collecting the eggs.

A-Level Students Basil and Graeme

Soon after she was satisfied her nest was safely hidden she turned around in the sandy underbrush, clumsy with her huge weight on land, and headed back to the ocean. Surprisingly quickly and steadily she made her way down the beach, shortened by the high tide she prefers for nesting, and entered to water.

Its easy to imagine she must now be relieved to be back in the ocean where her 100 Land kilograms are lightened to what feels like 2, and she can gracefully and swiftly move through her underwater home. In about 2 weeks she will pick another evening high tide to revisit the beach within about 50 meters of her first nest and lay another nest of eggs. For now, her eggs lay safely protected and incubating on Pom Pom Island, and in about 60 days we will have the privilege of witnessing the hatchlings finding their way back into their watery home.  

More about the turtles of Pom Pom

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Turtle Walk Anyone?

Turtle hatched

During my internship at TRACC, I had the opportunity to save hundreds of turtles eggs  (Yes, you read that right!). These turtle eggs were saved from evil poachers who sell them for a profit despite the alarming decline of the population of turtles. The collected turtle eggs are safely kept at the Pom Pom Hatchery until they are hatched and released to the ocean. Side note: Did you know that the survival rate of turtles eggs is 0.1%? Yeah! That's crazy but true! That's why "turtle walks" are important at TRACC.

Tourist Swarming Over Turtle hatching

When I first heard about "turtle walk" , I thought it meant walking around the island with turtles. (I still think that would have been cool). In reality, turtle walk meant patrolling the island to spot turtle nests. Sometimes I get the late shift (we rotate) but it's really worth the effort if you actually  find a nest! Even better if you have the chance to witness a turtle hatch - when all the hatched turtles are released into the ocean.  Funny, but doing turtle walk helped me realize how fragile but beautiful life is. After conducting countless turtle walks during my internship, I've come to realize that I can actually spot turtles miles away (I wish I'm kidding). Even while I'm diving in the deep blue ocean, I can still spot turtles far away!  I wished more people had awareness about turtles. I still can't forget the time I saw my first dead turtle washed on the shore because of choking on plastic.

In case you're wondering how we do our turtle walks, well we take shifts during the week to walk around the island. Fear not, we usually do it in pairs to avoid loneliness!

At TRACC, you can get hands on experience doing conservation work. Where else can you actually be within metres of a turtle laying eggs? It's honestly an experience you can't replicate (also makes a really cool story). We are also provided enough briefing and training to understand the process. 

Go Little One!

Turtle walks have definitely changed me to be more aware of my actions and how it impacts the environment. I would definitely recommend turtle walk experience at TRACC to all my friends. For a cheap cost I not only get to save turtles but also dive multiple times a day. Food is actually good too! I can't wait to come back next year.

For a chance to help volunteer and conduct turtle walks yourself

For more information, please check our website or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org

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What the Turtle Volunteers have been up to

About 25% of TRACC volunteers from May-September come to monitor the turtle nesting. It isn't possible to dive all day and walk round the island all night so this program is specifically for people who want to do some conservation without the expense (in either money or energy) of diving and reef restoration. They walk quietly round our lovely little island in the silence of the night and then snorkel peacefully in the heat of the day.


The turtle volunteers are also conducting in-water turtle surveys to monitor the turtle population and activity around the island. We've found that the green turtles outnumber the hawksbills by 10:1, but that the population dynamic is different. The green turtles are transitory adults; spending their days sleeping and eating in the shallows, mating and nesting. The hawksbill turtles tend to be resident, active juveniles.

Once the female greens are ready, they haul themselves up the beach and wander round it (often for hours) trying to find the perfect place to lay their precious eggs. We don't have any photos of this because any sort of disturbance at this point will have them beating a hasty retreat. So our turtle volunteers sit in the dark waiting for the girl to be ready.

Finally, when everything is perfect she settles into a semi-trance and starts to lay her eggs. She lays anywhere from 30-150 eggs depending on her age and how long she's been holding them. Often a female will return to the beach and go through the nesting process two or three times before she's finished for the season.

At this point the volunteers get face down in the sand for the enviable privilege of catching turtle eggs straight out of the mother. The eggs are all collected carefully and transferred to the island hatchery where they are safe from human poachers. There are no natural predators of turtle eggs on the island and if it wasn't for poaching the nests could be safely left in situ to develop naturally.

Although turtles are totally protected species and there are stiff penalties for taking their eggs, the local stateless people have very few economic opportunities. The poaching of turtle eggs is a major source of revenue for them but a major threat to turtle conservation.

All credits to Wirginia Romanowicz-Basiak for the photos.

For more information, please check our website or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org

The main website is at http://tracc-borneo.org
Check out our posts on our activities
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or simply #tracc or #traccblog on Google, Facebook, twitter or instagram

Whitneys project-soft coral and rubble planting

Today I went out with Tom and Helena to help out with Whitneys project.
Whitneys project is to see if soft corals can be used to stabilize a rubble reef slope and if they do, will this enable hard corals to settle, grow and create a coral reef.
I very much look forward following this particular project.

Tom's focused on attaching the cable tie

On the way to the control site we saw a octopus hiding in his hole and on the way back we saw a turtle resting.

The vizibility was, for Pom Pom, not that great, we have had a bit of rain and wind the last few days, which has been very much appreciated, we needed that.

Helena with things to plant

Octopus hiding in his hole

Green turtle resting

With his fellow sucker fish

For more information, please check our website or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org

The main website is at http://tracc-borneo.org
Check out our posts on our activities
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Turtle Nesting on Pom Pom

My first evening on Pom Pom and I spot 10 sea turtles in a 30 minute snorkel session...




Turtle heads back to sea maybe to return for another nesting in a few weeks

My second evening on Pom Pom and we witness the first turtle nesting of the peak season!

Up on the beach at around 20:00, it was an ideal night for it. The moon wasn't up yet and the heavy clouds blocked out what little light there was, making a great dark night for nesting.






Eggs safely collected after laying ready for incubation in the hatchery

This female was particularly speedy and took only 40 minutes before she headed back to sea. She's likely to return at least another two times to lay more eggs before she heads back to her feeding grounds. The eggs were collected and brought to the hatchery, protecting them from poaching. They should be hatched and ready to release in about 2 months.




A great sign for the start of the peak nesting season - we expect many more nestings as the weeks go on. What a start to my time on Pom Pom with TRACC.

Tom

More info about learning to dive or volunteering to help save the ocean with TRACC in Malaysia - Turtle Snorkellers - Divers 
TRACC seriously recommends that all divers get certified to rescue.  This is why.





TURTLES MATING AT THE TIP OF BORNEO

Witnessing turtles mating might not be so much of an exciting encounter for frequent divers. But it was hilarious indeed to bump into a pair of turtles when they are mating in the middle of the ocean. They split up when the boat got near. One of them swam right off, dived down and disappeared. I wonder if the mating was successful @.@?




More info about volunteering with TRACC in Malaysia - Turtle Snorkellers - Divers

Diving the N. Tip of Pom Pom island

The north tip of Pom Pom island (Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia) is a wall dive with the best wall starting at 30m. The reef crest at the north end of the Pom Pom reef wall has a large flat plateau The current splits at this point and there is a choice to swim either W around the N tip wall or East around the Fleavie wall.

The boat ties to the mooring and we kit up. Quick check of the current direction and last minute gear checks and we are off.

Backwards roll dive entry into 3-4m of water next to a large mushroom shaped bommie and a large area covered with bottle reefs planted by TRACC. The reef slope is covered with rubble and macrolife such as nudibranchs and frogfish can be found. Our dive is to go deep, so we pass rapidly across this shallow dive site down to 20m. A quick ok and then we curve off to the left and down a gully. The visibility is awesome at least 40 and maybe 50m and the wall looms up some way in front. The currrent has started to pick up and there are increasing numbers of small schooling fish. Big black coral bushes (“I must remember to ask the TRACC scientists why black !!! coral is actually red or white or green”) and a school of bannerfish mark mark the end of the gulley. I learn later that in 2012 when TRACC first surveyed the island of Pom pom, there were 3 of these schooling bannerfish. Now they are impossible to count. Everything is so approachable, the current is quite strong and all the fish are facing the current looking for food and ignoring the divers. A shoal of bait fish swims past and the big fish follow, 2 giant trevally, a small group of no idea (rainbow runners – id later from the photos) and a larger school of the bluefin trevally. I stop on the corner of the wall and try to get a good photo of the red tooth triggers when the school of big eye trevally swims past. Not worried by the 4 or was it 5 species of trevally, the small fish suddenly scatter. Swimming along the wall is a huge dogtooth tuna. It glides past a few metres away and then all the small fish return. Beep Beep, all to soon the computer says go up and then the best part of the dive started.

As we slowly ascend cross the plateau we see one or two then 5 or more, green turtles resting. Each bommie has at least one large female turtle and in the water column, a male is cruising looking for action. The females are not timid, they generally ignore divers, one female lifts off slowly and the nearest male cruises alongside. I learn later that mating was finished a few weeks ago, but the males are still searching for a willing partner. The cameras are clicking and I can see my buddy gesturing for me to swim into the right place to get that fantastic picture of me and a turtle drifting across the reef.

We gradually ascend to 9m and the seabed is a flat gentle slope of broken rubble. There clearly was a great reef here once but the blast fishing has decimated the fragile coral and it looks like the gravel when a road is being built. The vis is definitely 40m and I can see rubble in all directions, flat and featureless. But ahead past the dive master is a cloud of small fish. I look closer and they are living on a bottle reef. It is made from a ring of glass bottles embedded in cement and then the centre of the ring was plastic bottles. The whole structure is covered with coral and spomges and only a few bottle tops can still be seen. The fish definitely like it - there is a sabre tooth blenny hidden in the neck of lots of bottles and many many small fish. It is easy to see that the artificial reefs built by TRACC volunteers are making a huge difference to reef recovery..

Floating up into the shallows, there are more TRACC reefs, the ribbon reef snakes across the reef crest and is a highway for butterfly fish, blue devil damsels, anthias and many others. With successful artificial reefs like these I am fired up and will definitely be making reefs this afternoon.

Pom Pom Turtle island

Pom Pom should have been called turtle island, from the moment I arrived I saw turtle after turtle swimming around in the ocean. I got so excited at seeing these beautiful creatures in the flesh that I couldn’t help but swim after each one, tiring myself out within a short space of time of racing up and down the reef! The turtles would either be resting on coral or just merrily swimming around, some were 1m plus and some smaller but each one was as graceful as the next and just as exciting to see. 

On my fifth night here I got to see a turtle nesting!!! It was an amazing experience a huge 1m female laid 101 eggs and I got to share in this beautiful moment. 
Steve was briefing the guests on turtle ‘antics’ (he is pretty much a walking encyclopaedia when it comes to marine life) and I was getting slowly more and more annoyed with my camera as it was brand new and I hadn’t yet worked out how to use the night vision and film settings. I was silently going mental at the fact that I couldn’t capture this rare moment, but luckily managed to get a few good shots in the end.   

More information on volunteering with TRACC  - Facebook page - pom pom island biodiversity - Marine biology courses -