On the Turtles and Terrapins of Terengganu

1. Years ago Terengganu's Rantau Abang is famous for turtles landings. Hundreds of them came up the white sandy beach every night to lay their ping pong sized eggs. And hundreds of visitors and tourists flocked the place at night to watch the events. I did go there twice to be part of the party. We shouted and we mounted on the backs of the turtles and shone lights straingt into their faces. And nobody told us not to do such mischiefs. The state of Terengganu became famous for turtles and the chalet owners and hawkers were happy to reap the products. A couple of years ago there was a statue of turtle in a round-about in Kuala Terengganu.

2. Today no turtle lands anymore at Rantau Abang, though the beach is still white and sandy. The locals were puzzled and what-ever reasons the scientists told them they didn't believe. The irony is that the expert on turtles Prof. Chan, from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu resides in Kuala Terengganu.

3. Turtles do land but at Ma' Daerah, a smal area with 1.7 km of white and sandy beach enclaved by Bukit Labohan Besar and Bukit Labohan Kecil in Kerteh. The area receives flares and lights from the numerous plants at Kerteh nearby. And turtles don't like lights and flares but they did land there!

4. Turtles do also land at Setiu where there is a longer white sandy beach. However, there is a looming aquaculture project coming to the area which is going to threaten the survival of the landing turtles directly. There are other land-use issues in the area.

5. Fresh-water terrapins are also found in Setiu. Some years ago many died of poisoning especially the weedicides and pesticides from nearby areas. Their carapaces were scattered everywhere.

6. The people of Terengganu still eat turtle eggs which are sold at the famed Pasar Kepayang. It is very difficult for the people of Terengganu, and for that matter, those of other states, to get rid of that old habit of consuming turtle eggs. If there is a legislation in Terengganu to prohibit eggs eating and selling, what stops their neighbours in Kelantan to bring across the eggs, sell and consume them in Kelantan?

7. But who cares about turtles? They didn't as there were still many people in Kelantan who caught monitor lizards, pangolins, snakes, frogs, terrapins etc to sell them across the northern border.