Scavengers prompted construction of hatchery

Published on: Sunday, October 15, 2023

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During Covid years 2020-21, turtles even nested under stilted villas, snapping electric wires and water pipes!

TURTLE eggs were left alone in the early 2000s.

“When we started Mataking Reef Resort in 2003, we just left the eggs where mother turtles had deposited them naturally,” said Operations Manager, Jeffrey Yee.

“But we never saw any hatchlings, maybe village people, fishermen, scavenging monitor lizards and dogs had taken them all, so we realised we needed to build a hatchery to protect the eggs,”Yee said.

Come 2004, New Zealander, Adrian Van Dooren, a Master scuba diver, was appointed Resort Manager.

In 2006, Dooren, a lover of turtles, sharks, nudibranch, started a small hatchery on the island’s north side.

Expanding capacity from 50 to 250 nests

“Initially the hatchery located on the north side of the island, could only accommodate 50 nests,” said Ambotahang Mohd – Hatchery Warden, Security Manager and Duty Manager, all rolled into one, who is supported by a dedicated team of Honorary Wildlife Wardens, Hardy bin Habiral, Arif Budiman bin Ghani, Alan bin Jul @ Lan and even CEO Sophia Sie is also a trained Honorary Wildlife Warden.

“Now we have a hatchery that can accomodate 250 nests,” he said.

“We enlarged it gradually every year,” Resort Manager, Masuara Majawi explained the growth.’

The 250 nest capacity hatchery under Warden Ambotahang Mohd.

“Eventually, in July 2018, in order to make space to build a Bay Watch and the Breeze Bar, management decided to move the hatchery to the island’s east side,” she said.

“Marine biologist Aaron Roa, Ambo, the contractor and I oversaw construction of the expanded new hatchery,” Masuara said.

Pressure to enlarge hatchery again due to rising nests

“But still, it has now become a bit congested and we plan to enlarge it again,” she said.

So, pressure from rising nests looks set to expand the hatchery again, which conservation buffs will say this is great.

We can see this from even a very incomplete list of nesting records shows the necessity – 11 nests (2006); 29 nests (2007); 29 nests (2008) 70 nests (2009); 265 nests (2022); 366 nests (2023 as of Sept).

An overwhelming majority are green turtle nests, hawksbill nests numbered only two in 2022, confirming widespread concern about its decline but Ambot reported 47 so far this year, so there’s a ray hope?

Interestingly, 51 nests were recorded on the first 6 days alone of October, 2023, including a record 16 nests on Oct 1 – the highest in history; 2 nests (Oct2); 14 (Oct 3); 9 (Oct 4); 5 (Oct 5 ); 7 (Oct 6), said Masuara.

During Covid years 2020-21, hatchery closed, resort dark at night, turtles dug nest even under stilted villas, snapping electric wires and water waters, Jeff Yee reported.

What happened to all those eggs deposited naturally during Covid is not certain.

‘Mataking turtle population one of largest’ – Marine biologist

As marine biologist Aaron Roa noted, the Mataking nesting turtle population is “one of the largest” among six peer nesting islands in northeast Semporna – Pom Pom, Pandana, Timba Timba, Kuapuan and Boheyan that together form a collaborative management body to manage and conserve marine turtles under lead agency Sabah Wildlife Department assisted by WWF-Malaysia.

The total number of eggs collected appears to have risen over the years – 670 ( 2006); 2,915 (2007); 2,320 (2008); 7,707 (2009); 11,000 (2019); No collection (Covid years 2020-21); 18,878 (2022); 26,580 (as of Sept 2023), according to Ambo.

CEO on brilliant built-in incentive – Pay RM30 / nest collected

One wonders whether what looks like rising egg collections is due to a brilliant ‘built-in incentive’ policy to boost collection, which frankly surprised me – the Resort pays RM30 for every turtle nest collected and handed over to the hatchery for incubation.

“The management came up with this idea,” said Sophia Sie, Managing Director of Mataking Reef Resort.

“The nests can be anywhere in Mataking Kecil and Mataking Besar which are separated by a half-kilometre long sand bar named Moses’ Walk, if there are no incentives, nobody may bother,” Sophia explained.

From Left to Right: Jeffrey, Masuara and Sophia

Well known model Amber Chia (2nd left) and lady at right, adopted one turtle nest each, seen photographed here with Sophia Sie (2nd right) and Jeffery Yee (3rd left).

“Since we are an island resort and resources are limited, we have come up with many incentive schemes to motivate staff to do extra more than their normal work.

“With this incentive in place, it means my marine biologist can easily get the help of staffs to search and collect turtle eggs for the hatchery, nobody else capture the eggs, we always find them first,” Sophia asserted.

‘Paying staff to collect eggs works’ – Resort Manager

“It works,“ Resort Manager Misuara chipped in.

“Since we did this to pay our staffs to collect eggs, they have become very good at looking for turtle eggs,” she said.

“Every month, we pay more than RM1,000 just to collect eggs, we also encourage soldiers based on the island to do that, we tell them if they find it, give it to us, we pay you,” Masuara told Daily Express.

Chinese tourists deem it ‘luck’ to adopt turtles & pay: Manager

“People may ask how we can afford to pay them, the answer is involve tourists in turtle conservation. We invite guests to be part of the Turtle Family of Mataking, by becoming “adoptive parents” for a nest,” she said.

“When we release the hatchlings, our Warden would explain the adoption programme, then those interested would come to the Reception Centre to fill a form, select a specific nest they like, pay RM200, a T-shirt and a Certificate of parenthood would be given to the adopters, then we mark the nest, after hatching, we send them pictures and videos of their nest. This is what we do for conservation here, to help turtles.”

Asked how popular is the turtle Adootive Parents scheme, Masuara said:

“Many Chinese tourists take it, because they say: ‘This is my luck!’”