Protecting our turtle paradise

The island of Mabul in Semporna, Sabah is fast gaining popularity among travellers for its beauty and diverse underwater marine life.

It also revels in the limelight of its famous neighbour Sipadan island, known worldwide among the diving fraternity as one of the best diving spots in the world.

An unique thing in Mabul is divers get to see turtles up close. Unlike other famous dive spots in Peninsular Malaysia such as Perhentian, Redang and Tioman, this marine creature would instinctively swim away upon sight of bubbles from divers. However in this island, the turtles are somewhat more "diver friendly".

Swim alongside them, take a picture - they couldn't care less! Perhaps due to the attention and number of "visitors" they get daily.

They are the resident turtles of Mabul island.

"The sea turtles are an iconic marine life which divers love to see. They are an asset for Mabul island. Therefore we need to protect these creatures as they are the main attraction here. We need to preserve their natural habitats so the turtles can continue to feed here and lay their eggs on this island." said Gavin Jolis, WWF Malaysia-Semporna's species officer for sea turtles.

Conservation efforts paid off as population of turtles in Mabul island shows an increase in recruitment in a duration of 6 months.

A research conducted by Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS)'s Borneo Marine Research Institute, led Dr Pushpa Palianappan, recently found 61 untagged turtles in a span of four days -- this shows a healthy growth of turtle population in Mabul.

"We found that most of the turtle we caught are actually untagged. We did the same research in May and we found some still with tags but most did not have it. This is a good sign meaning there is a recruitment of population here on this island." said Dr Pushpa.

The research was conducted as a follow-up to the first research done specifically in Mabul island in May where 43 turtles were measured and tagged to monitor the growth population of the resident turtles in the island.

"Our divers will catch the turtle using the "JS method" where we will rope the turtle's 'shoulders' and use a lifting bag to bring them to surface. Once on the surface, we will pick the turtles and on the boat, we will take 7 different pictures and measure them. Then we will tag them using these tags from Sabah Park. This whole process will take about 10 to 15 minutes before we release them back into the sea."

The research also coincides with Mabul Sea Turtle Celebration programme organized by Borneo Divers Mabul Resort to instil awareness and love for the marine creature.

"The finding on the research done by Dr Pushpa has given a lot of information as to why turtle behaviour and growth rate are patterned in such manner. Water temperature, diet, coral and underwater environment, all have an impact to its growth. We are able to identify where the turtles come from with the tag being placed by Dr Pushpa and team," said Datuk Admund Looh, the chief executive officer of Borneo Divers Mabul Resort.

Although Mabul island is not a protected marine park, Gavin sees the potential of the island to be a role model in sustainable tourism.

"The turtles usually come up to sandy beaches to lay their eggs. However, if infrastructures were built on the beach, there would be lesser space for them. If there is new development on this island, they should adhere to few guidelines. For example make sure it is 10 or 20 meters away from the shore as well as use low lights that are not sensitive to turtles. If you use white lights the turtles will not come up to lay their eggs." said Gavin who has been working for many years with turtles under WWF.

Resort owners and dive operators also play an important part in ensuring a more sustainable tourism industry. More dive operators in Mabul are doing something to give back to the environment.

"Our ocean reef and marine life actually are our bread and butter. We are generating business from the natural resource of our oceans. Therefore we need to protect the ocean like organising awareness projects, research on sea turtles and coral rehabilitation." said Admund of Borneo Divers Mabul Resort.

Scuba Junkie, another dive operator and resort on the island, has been getting the local community to be involved by recruiting them as rangers to patrol the area, who would then alert them on egg-laying turtle sightings.

Another programme is to get those who had illegally harvested turtle eggs, to pay five times the price of the egg, to the community.The locals will also inform a trained staff of the resort who will then safely relocate the eggs to its hatchery.

These are efforts from concerned individual and industry players, but what about the tourism industry as a whole?

"We should be developing some sort of sustainability index or indicator especially for this industry. The index can be a check list for every operator to see whether they are operating sustainably or not. This includes financial sustainability as we do need them to earn enough profit so they can continue the sustainability conservation effort they are doing for their surroundings." said Dr Awangku Hassanal Bahar Pengiran Bagul, Director of EcoCampus Management Centre, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

With Visit Malaysia 2014 just around the corner, the country's tourism sector is expected to receive a higher influx of tourists. While Malaysia has a lot to offer from beautiful islands, majestic mountains and untouched forests, question is - how sustainable is the industry?

It's not rocket science to figure out that if little is done to protect what mother nature has blessed us with, there will be nothing left in the future to attract any visitors.