Ensuring ocean free from plastic bags to protect turtles
Published on: Saturday, May 09, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: The Mabul World Turtle Day celebration this year aims to heighten the importance of keeping the ocean free from plastic bags to minimise the threats affecting sea turtles. The event which will be hosted by Borneo Divers and Sea Sports (Sabah) Sdn Bhd at Borneo Divers Mabul Resort from May 18 to 21 will see about 60 participants joining in the celebration.According to Borneo Divers and Sea Sports (Sabah) Sdn Bhd Group General Manager Luke J. Cox, plastic bags that were littered into the ocean bear a striking resemblance to jellyfish and would be fatal to turtles that consumed them. ADVERTISEMENT "Therefore, we will be having a beach and underwater clean-up of Mabul Island on May 20," he said, adding that turtles are also prone to be hit by boats.However, he explained that measures have been taken to avoid collision by diverting boats to another route when in contact with turtles or minimising the speed as it approached the reefs. He said this in a press conference held at their office at Menara Jubili here, Friday. Speaking of the programme, Cox explained that it will be the follow-up to the underwater census of the resident green and hawksbill sea turtle population in the waters of Mabul as well as to catch, photograph, measure and tag the turtles. ADVERTISEMENT "The Mabul World Turtle Day programme is a follow-up project to the initial study by Dr. Pushpa Palaniappan and her team from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Borneo Marine research Institute on the resident sea turtle populations in Sipadan and Mabul Islands.To date, a total of 228 turtles in Mabul (207 green turtles and 21 hawkbills) have been caught and tagged.
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"This year, we have 12 in-house guests from China, Singapore, Taiwan and the peninsula who will be participating in the underwater census," he said."This long-term project will also enable UMS to monitor the resident population of sea turtles in Mabul and to collect annual growth rate data, which will then be used towards the conservation of these turtles," he said.Besides that, he said the celebration which commenced in the year 2013 has also been included in the Sabah Tourism Calendar beginning this year to encourage participation from domestic and international visitors to the State. The activities during the celebration this year include educational games for junior participants, amateur photography competition, beach and underwater clean-up of Mabul Island, demonstration of taking sea turtle morphometric measurements and flipper-tagging, talk on sea turtles by Dr. Pushpa, continuous public awareness and education about sea turtles biology and conservation as well as underwater census of the resident sea turtle population in the waters of Mabul. The partner agencies for the Mabul World Turtle Day 2015 are:i. Sabah Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment (Sabah Tourism Board, Sabah Wildlife Department and Sabah Parks)ii. Borneo Marine Research Institute (BMRI) of UMSiii. The Borneo Connections Sdn Bhdiv. Sipadan Mabul Resort (Smart)v. Semporna District OfficeStay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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vi. Sabah Education DepartmentThe celebration is expected to be graced by Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister Datuk Kamarlin Ombi.