Turtle Hatchery Management Workshop

Been quite busy with work recently. The most recent KKRW activity was a turtle hatchery management at Mataking island for the Reef Dive Resort staffs in Semporna, Sabah.

First day, putting up banner

There were about 20 participants including the Dive Resort manager. Great participants to have. The resort's Marine Biologist Khoo Min Hui was the one who's responsible for the Turtle Hatchery on the island and organize the workshop for the staffs.

Digging turtle nest is hard

On day 3 of the workshop we successfully tagged a green turtle, it was the first turtle to be tagged on the island. The next day, the tagged turtle came back to the same beach to lay eggs. Looking forward to release the baby turtles :)

Night lecture

A demonstration on how to release turtle hatchling

The island is also home to a very unique and rare crab called coconut crab. It is named after its ability to crush the hard shell of coconut.

A coconut crab, this is how you handle them

At the end of the workshop all the staffs were motivated to take care of the turtle eggs on the island and have more knowledge on the turtle biology and how to handle the eggs and the turtles. A very successful workshop :)

Group photos with certificate of participation

The island itself is full of interesting habitat, an ideal ecology with a bit of mangrove, large patches of seagrass bed, sandy beach and rocky shore.

Dead sea turtle shell on the seagrass during low tide

A wreck at Mataking Besar island, full of life (sweet lips, crocodilefish, scorpionfish, groupers etc)