Published on: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 |
Out of this, 10 are green turtles while seven are Hawksbills.
The unexpected turtle trophies represent a major boost to the museum's only two existing chelonian exhibits. Chief taxidermist Albert Lo and his staff have been busy cleaning and polishing the turtle shells with acetone for display at he museum's gallery.
However, Lo says he's not particularly happy with the condition of the shells which had been treated with formalin by the Chinese fishermen to preserve them. As a result, the eye sockets - an iconic part of a turtle exhibit have basically been destroyed. The necks have all been pulled out to make them look long. "
It reflects a lack of experience in the choice of preservation medium," Lo said. Asked what the museum would have done to preserve a turtle, he said:
"Immerse it in sulphuric acid for two to three days, take it out, wash it, especially the eyes, with boric acid to make the eyelids look natural but never use formalin," Lo said.
As for the other 250 shells, he said most of them were reportedly damaged. About 70 turtles were found in the first boat (17 men) caught off Mengalum Island while the second boat (13 men) caught off Mantanani Island found had about 200 turtles on board.
The fishermen were charged and convicted. the skippers fined RM500,000 each and crew RM80,000 each but since they couldn't pay the fines, they were jailed six months each and their boats confiscated.
Sea turtles are widely known as endangered species but in China, turtles - a generic name which also include tortoises (land turtles) and terrapins (fresh water) have long been used for food and medicine.
Hong Kong alone imported 7.7 million pounds of turtle meat of all kinds in 1996 though probably a lot of it came from farmed turtles.
Traditional medicine is extracted from the top shell (carapace) and bottom shell (plastron) of preferred species, a lot of it involving land tortoises. Nevertheless, shells of the Green turtle, Hawksbill turtle and even the Leatherback are deemed to have medicinal value.
But in dealing with the issue, it pays to be aware that the mainstay of traditional Chinese medicine values food as the best way to maintain health, not drugs to "confront" diseases as in western medicine.
Its soup, for instance, is a pervasive Chinese way to cook herbs and meat or even vegetables, it is because of the belief that soup brewed slowly can draw out potent nutrients into a colloidal form that can be easily absorbed and the belief is that unusual animals contribute specific nutrients that might help bolster health.
Not surprisingly then that all the 185 Green Turtles and 89 Hawksbill turtles had already been de-fleshed when the boats were intercepted by the Malaysian Marine Police while the shells had been treated with formalin.
