74 turtles are tagged at Mabul event
Published on: Thursday, May 28, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Borneo Divers and Sea Sports Group General Manager Luke J Cox said they managed to capture, research, tag and release a total of 74 marine turtles, consisting of 65 Green Turtles and 9 Hawksbill Turtles during the 2015 Mabul World Turtle Day event."This year we actually hit a new record, where we captured a female Green Turtle with an original flipper tag from the Philippines. "We also retrieved other turtles, which had originally been tagged at the Sabah Turtle Islands Park. It was interesting to note that out of our 74 turtles, 61 of them were juveniles and living healthily amongst the island's reef system," he said.
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The event which this year was held at the Borneo Divers Mabul Resort off the east coast, has once again proven to be a huge success.The event which was officiated by Assistant Minister for Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Kamarlin Ombi was by far the biggest multi-agency event in the organisation's history, attracting participants from far and wide.The four-day event, which took place at the resort between May 18-21, had a sole remit to bring attention to, and increase knowledge of and respect for, turtles and tortoises and thus encouraged human action to help them survive and thrive.From an education, scientific and research angle, the group was fortunate to have the enduring support of the Borneo Marine Research Institute of UMS, headed by Dr. Pushpa Palaniappan and her team.
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Throughout the research days, whilst tagging the turtles, the team made some interesting discoveries, highlighting the known fact that turtles really are the original travelling nomads of the seas.Environment played an important role in this year's event, as the island community became actively involved in clean-up operations both on the land and underwater where a total of almost 140kg of plastic waste was retrieved.
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With the hard work came education also, as Pushpa gave a powerful presentation to over 80 young people from both island schools, guests and volunteer participants alike.Funding and support for the event this year came from a multiple of sources, including Borneo Divers as the host resort, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Borneo Connections, SMART resort, Monosopiad Cultural Village, Aunties Homemade Lihing and Sabah Tourism Board.However key support for the 2015 event also came from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Environment which gifted a grant of RM25,000."This event is one which will go on to shape our future and the future of our sea turtle population in Sabah. It is an event so significant that it is permanently placed on the Sabah calendar of events year after year. This is why we believe that it is vital to continue and why we have gifted this grant of RM25,000 for it to do so," said Kamarlin.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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