Turtles In Cherating Beach Malaysia

Setting a 50-Year Date with the Cherating Turtles

Malaysia is blessed with a good number of pristine beaches scattered across its glorious east coast, which famously include Terengganu's Rantau Abang - a renowned nesting ground of the giant leatherback turtles. Nonetheless, there are plenty of other locales along Malaysia's beautiful eastern coastline that offer top-notch turtle-viewing experience; and one such place is none other than Cherating. In total, there are five turtle nesting grounds in Pahang, two of which fall on Cherating's Chendor Beach, the official site of the Cherating Turtle Sanctuary & Information Centre. Chendor Beach houses many species of turtles, most notably the green sea turtles. In fact, it has been estimated that the green sea turtles make up approximately 90% of the turtle population found here!

The Cherating Turtle Sanctuary started out as a turtle hatchery, which was established by the Department of Fisheries in 1972 to protect endangered turtles when they land on shore to lay their eggs. In 1997, a full-fledged centre was built on the 0.33-hectare site in order to make turtle protection work more systematic and efficient. Between April and August every year, workers from the centre now collect the turtle eggs that are laid on the beach, so they can be nurtured and hatched in a protected environment.

On 1 June 1998, Cherating Turtle Sanctuary was officially opened to the public. Since it's opening, the sanctuary quickly became a favourite amongst turtle watchers. Visitors would come from far and wide to learn about turtles, purchase turtle-themed souvenirs, and watch the turtles lay their eggs on shore. The Sanctuary also allows visitors to release young turtles back to sea -which remains the top favourite activity here today.

In spite of their long life spans, the continued survival of turtles has become a real concern with every passing year. The threat of over-fishing by humans aside, turtles are constantly facing challenges in many other areas, with eggs being devoured by inland predators, the difficulty in finding the right direction to the nesting grounds, and the task of seeking out new nesting grounds to replace old nesting grounds which had been destroyed. And because young turtles take around 20 - 50 years before they become adults with the ability to reproduce, there is also a pressing concern on the time it takes to replenish the ageing population that is dying off every year.

To make matters worse, there have been plenty of incidents where turtles were killed after getting tangled in fishing nets when they swim above water for air. Reportedly, some turtles also died from tumor growths in the stomach, as a result of swallowing plastic bags and other toxic materials disposed by humans.

In our recent media expedition to the Cherating Turtle Sanctuary & Information Centre in September, we missed out on the hatching season, but ended up doing something even more memorable. Thanks to Pahang Tourist Board and the Department of Fisheries, we had the opportunity to set free a batch of young turtles back to the sea - an act that was indefinitely more meaningful to us.

At the Legend Cherating Beach Resort, we lifted young turtles which were kept in a polyurethane box and slowly laid them on the beach. Amazingly, the turtles began crawling towards the direction of the ocean, pushing with their fragile-looking but physically powerful limbs. Was this the call of Mother Nature? Or did the turtles instinctively know in their DNA to follow the sounds of crashing waves? We never did find out. But as they disappeared, one by one, into the embrace of the dark blue water, all we could do was wish them the best of luck...

A turtle typically takes 50 years to grow into an adult. Would the turtles we freed beat the odds and grow into fully-matured adults? I guess we'll only know 50 years later, when they do return.

Cherating Turtle Sanctuary & Information Centre 26050 Balok, Cherating, Kuantan, Pahang. Tel(6) 09-581 9087 0 9:00 am -1:00 pm; 2:00 pm - 5:30 pm (Tues - Thurs); 9:00 am -12:00 pm: 3:00 pm - 5:30 pm (Fri)

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