KOTA KINABALU: Researchers involved in the alleged hazardous turtle tagging method will make the appropriate changes for the safety of the species.
Sabah Tourist, Culture and Environment minister Datuk Christina Liew said so far there was no evidence on the speculations relating to the method used to capture sea turtles for biological studies in the waters of Mabul island in Semporna.
Last week, non-governmental organisations (NGO) Semporna Professional Divers Association and Green Semporna claimed that public university researchers and associated volunteer programme had used “lift bag” to take turtles to the surface for tagging, which they said was hazardous.
Both NGOs were backed up by Borneo Marine Research Foundation executive director Dr Nicholas Pilcher who had studied turtles for 30 years, who said the method would cause decompression sickness to the species.
The department on Tuesday held a roundtable discussion here with the scientists, resort and related non-government organisations to find a way forward for the sea turtle research project in Mabul Island, Sabah.
Liew said the Mabul sea turtle project which commenced in 2013 had recorded over 1,000 turtle captures until this year, many of which were repeat captures, from which valuable growth, health and genetic data of the species had been obtained.
“Each turtle is tagged to give it a unique identification number for long-term monitoring.
“The public university will continue its successful collaboration with the resort in Mabul towards the public awareness, education and conservation of the sea turtles in Mabul,” she added.
The major anthropological threats to the sea turtles in Sabah, which are especially prevalent in Mabul, were identified due to poaching, plastic pollution and boat strikes.
As for the Wildlife department, Liew said it would work closely with marine police and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) to apprehend and charge poachers, as well as deter others from committing these crimes.
“Clean-up programmes and awareness about the dangers of discarding plastic wantonly had been conducted for school students as well as the public.
“Sea turtles need to surface to breathe, and may collide with fast-moving boats. Therefore it is highly recommended that boats lower their speed to 4km per hour in the shallow areas where turtles forage.”
Sea turtles are protected in Sabah under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997.