SANDAKAN: The government needs to provide the maritime community with alternative food sources if it wants to tackle consumption of turtle meat and eggs as well as poaching activity.
Friends of Sea Turtles Education and Research (Foster) president Alexander Yee said turtles have been the source of food among the locals in Semporna for the longest time.
“If we want to solve the problem, we not only have to put in place the rules, regulations and enforcement but we need to be able to educate the locals and have substitute food sources for them.
“If we tell them not to consume (turtle meats and eggs), what are they going eat? Everything (education, rules, regulations, and enforcement) has to run concurrently.
“The recent discovery (of mutilated turtles on Pulau Bum Bum) is a sad incident but we just have to keep trying. We need to have all those things in place to reduce this incident,” he said when contacted.
In providing his view on the case, Yee who has a turtle hatchery on Libaran Island off Sandakan, believed the turtles were poached by locals or Pala’u nomads for own consumption and for sale.
“My source said the meat has been dug out and the pouch where the turtle eggs are stored is also emptied. However, I’m not sure whether it (turtle) has decayed and that’s why it looks as if the internal (of the turtle) is empty.
“It’s quite obvious they are after the meat and eggs for consumption because the turtle shell is worth a lot of money. They did not take that.
“It could be that they took some (meat and eggs) for themselves and sold the rest but we wouldn’t know. I suspect they are also selling them because of the number of turtles found,” he said.
To a question whether the turtles were caught in local or neighbouring waters, Yee said it did not matter as all endangered turtles needed to be protected.
He explained turtles that nest in the Philippine are known to nest over in Sabah waters too.
“Turles don’t look for a particular area to nest. I know this for a fact because of my hatchery on Libaran Island. I have had turtles being tagged on Selingan (Turtle Island) and landing on Libaran.
“There are also turtles tagged in the Philippine and landed on Libaran. So they don’t roam specific areas,” stressed Yee.
Meanwhile, district wildlife officer Hussien Muin, in a statement, said their enforcement unit would carry out special operations dubbed Op Penjual and Op Pembeli aggressively to tackle the selling and buying of turtle eggs.
In continuation of the Op Penjual, which was initiated last month and saw three foreigners sentenced to imprisonment for selling turtle eggs, Op Pembeli was launched to discourage egg consumption.
“We are working closely with the police, Sandakan Municipal Council, Public Works Department and WWF to continue instil strong awareness on the long-term impact if turtle egg consumption is not tackled,” he said.