Foster releases 30,000 baby turtles as of March 1

Kota Kinabalu: The Friends of Sea Turtles Education & Research (Foster) had released some 30,000 baby turtles into the ocean as of March 1.Turtle landings also saw a marked increase since July 2013.

This was the result of Foster committee members teaming up with the villagers of Libaran Island to rejuvenate the shoreline on a daily basis since 2015.

The cleaner shoreline was one of the reasons for the increased sea turtle landings on the island.

Poised for the next phase of growth for Foster, a new team of Executive Committee (Exco) members for the 2018-2020 term was installed at the recent Annual General Meeting.

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Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Government continued its momentum in managing the economy in line with the commitment and spirit of the Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) when it posted record high state revenue of RM6.973 billion last year.

Alexander Yee was elected as the President while Dares S.A @ Octavius was elected as the Vice-President along with Elsie Gidai as the treasurer, Michael Lo (secretary), Haslin Gaffor (deputy secretary), Kenny Teng and Noor Hafizah Zubaidi as committee members, and Dr James Alin and Dr Juanita Joseph as advisors.

Yee expressed his appreciation for the commitment of the new Exco members and noted that the new team has a good balance in profession, consisting of journalist, tourism players, financial institution executives and academics. Moreover, the age group varies and allows for long-term continuality.

He said the new exco members formulated several action plans for the next 12 months in a brainstorming session.

The plans include the continuation of the community beach cleaning on Libaran Island, expanding the beach cleaning to the west coast of Sabah, the production of a booklet on Sea Turtle Volunteer Programme on Libaran Island and more collaboration with government agencies such as the State Wildlife Department and State Parks towards the conservation and protection of sea turtles.

Yee added that he will be leading the new team to make courtesy calls to various government agencies in due course.

In 2013, Trekkers Lodge Sdn Bhd signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the State Wildlife Department to set up a turtle conservation programme on the island.

The programme includes creating awareness for locals and tourists on the conservation value of sea turtles, undertaking research projects with the goal of better understanding in the life cycle of sea turtles surrounding the island area and to make available research programmes on sea turtle for international and local students.

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It was then when Yee, as Managing Director of Trekkers Lodge Sdn Bhd, set up Foster to achieve the objectives efficiently.

Since then, Foster had sponsored over 10 local villagers to undergo Honorary Wildlife Warden Course and subsequently provided employment to them in taking care of turtle hatchery at Taman Hadiah on Libaran Island.

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