I never thought that it can be so much fun to learn about conservation science until I met Amazing Cedric (YES I’M A FANGIRL!).

I joined eLearning Wildlife Conservation Course , an online course held by Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), University of Oxford upon the completion of last online course I enrolled (read the previous article on “As an early career conservationist”). This eLearning course ran from Oct 2018 to Jan 2019 and Dr Cedric Tan was the course director.

This online course is considered as FREE with the only one criteria – successful completion of the entire course. Applicants are required to submit a 1-min (or less) recorded video about themselves, together with a £50 deposit to secure their places. The deposit will be returned if the participants fully participated throughout the course and completed the given assignments of all modules.

There are a total of 8 modules covered different topics on learning research, analytical and communication skills. All modules was really intensive with lecture videos, collaborative learning tasks, online games, forum or discussion, assignments (individual/group), and quizzes. Participants can do the course anytime and anywhere at their own pace, within the certain period of the module. Mentors (from WildCRU team) will be assigned to groups to mentor the progress of the participants and provide guidance during the learning if necessary. 

Module 1 & 2:

Conservation Research: The Scientific Process & Survey and Experimental Design

These two modules cultivate students or young conservation biologists with skills to transform their research into impact. At the 1st module, I learned how to develop research questions with PSBR (Pressure, State, Benefit, Response) model and the scientific process with constructing hypothesis, prediction and observation. I was taught at the 2nd module on designing data collection procedures, such as different sampling methods, randomization, blocking, replication etc. 

Module 3, 4, 5 & 6:

Statistical Analysis using R, Spatial Analysis using QGIS, Occupancy (Habitat Use) & Capture-mark-recapture (Density Analysis)

These are the most challenging modules to me as I never learnt R, QGIS and their application in conservation at my undergraduate and master studies, and they are the reasons why I am interested to participate this course. R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics, meanwhile QGIS is also a free software that functions as geographic information system (GIS) software, allowing users to analyze, edit spatial information,composing and exporting graphical maps. By using these two softwares, we can study occupancy of certain species on habitat use and density of a species at a particular site through capture-mark-recapture method.

Module 7 & 8:

Presentation Skills & Creative Games

These modules focus on how biologists communicate the findings to the public and/or policy makers through presentations or in a more interactive delivery approach – games. I learnt about three elements of oral presentation, which are SELL, ENGAGE and EXPAND (known as SEX). Presenting scientific findings is same as promoting a product, where we attract the audience with the focus of study and appealing visuals, engage with the audience through animation, music, story telling, and lastly stimulate the expansion of the topic by relating it on a personal level or creating a broader implications. At the last modules, I created a board game that educates public on responsible, eco-friendly tourism during their vacation on an island.

A fruitful learning is not only about getting knowledge, but also creating network with other like-minded people across the globe. The biggest gain that I received from this course is get to know Master Rushan! Rushan was my coursemate, a great learning partner, and a kind tutor, who helped me a lot during the course. I could never complete the course myself without his patience and mental support along the journey. We are no longer coursemate, but good friends who share the same interest (we both love sea turtles very much) and aspiration in conservation! Other than “skyping” to discuss about our study during the course, we never talk and meet each other in person. Therefore, I am extremely looking forward to meet this awesome guy at the conference in July – ICCB 2019! We will meet the Amazing Cedric at that conference as well! ICCB (International Congress for Conservation Biology) will definitely be the highlight of my 2019!!!

Lastly, I would like to say thank you to Dr. Cedric to create this course, making learning such a fun thing to do! I enjoyed a lot!

NOTE: The words highlighted in orange will be the topic of next article. Stay tuned to find out more!

After conservation taught me how we should treat and value marine wildlife, I wanted to do something to help and spread the message. At Turtle Lab, I never missed  a chance to educate the guests about no feeding and touching turtles through the conversation with them. Starting from July, apart from spreading the words, I started asking whoever I have talked with to fill in an online questionnaire survey of “Responsible Resort Snorkeling / Diving Activities”, which was initiated by Turtle Conservation Society (TCS).

The objectives of this survey are to:

1. Determine how frequently snorkel / dive guides promote interactions with marine wildlife
2. Gauge the tourists’ awareness on issues affecting our marine wildlife
3. Highlight beach resorts that promote responsible snorkeling / diving activities.

Concerning about the issues of people touching or harassing marine wildlife and how these action can harm the marine wildlife, the data collected and analysed from the responses of the survey helps to better understand the level of public awareness towards the ethics and welfare of marine wildlife, to find solutions improving the current situation and to encourage responsible tourism practices in Malaysia.

To promote the online questionnaire survey of “Responsible Resort Snorkeling / Diving Activities” in a more efficient way, I emphasized on the issue of touching or feeding sea turtles and importance of conducting this survey at the briefing before turtle release event, where I could get the attention of many guests. The responses from the guests about the survey were quite positive, and some of the guests even concerned about the next step after data collection of the survey. This question took me to further step: writing an article on “Responsible snorkeling and diving activities in Malaysia’s ecotourism”. (This article hasn’t published yet but it is expected to be published in the magazine in June 2019.)

This article was written by two intern students of TCS (Rachel and Tyng Tyng) and me. We tirelessly worked on analysing the data, illustrating the data in figures (%), and putting the key points with a word limit of 1500. Pelf, co-founder and Executive Director of TCS also helped us in polishing the article and provided suggestions to enhance the article’s content. Within 2 and half months, we successfully completed the article and sent to the editor. Hopefully this article could make a great impact and the data was sufficient enough to create noise, ultimately drawing the public’s attention to look at this issue seriously and take action upon it.

While writing the article, I took another initiative to help sea turtles: conducting photographic identification (photo ID) as a citizen science project in Redang Island. This idea was “born” when I had a conversation with Seh Ling (a good friend of mine in conservation industry, and she is now my partner) about turtle feeding as well as the reactions of people in Redang Island and Perhentian Island towards turtle conservation. Seh Ling shared with me that photo ID has been conducting at plenty of islands and managed by different NGOs such as

1. Perhentian Turtle Project (PTP) from Perhentian Island in Terengganu
2. Lang Tengah Turtle Watch (LTTW) from Lang Tengah Island in Terengganu
3. Juara Turtle Project (JTP) from Tioman Island in Pahang
4. Tengah Island Conservation (TIC) from Tengah Island in Johor
5. Tropical Research and Conservation Centre (TRACC) from Pom Pom Island in Sabah
6. Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines (LAMAVE) from Philippines

However, photo ID is not practiced and inactive in Redang Island, except few undergraduate studies done by Sea Turtle Research Unit (SEATRU). Seh Ling proposed that Redang could join the photo ID network by submitting photos and information to the central data base with the other NGOs. Moreover, we both think that photo ID is not only a citizen science project that engages public in conservation and research, also helps to promote responsible, ethical and sustainable turtle tourism.

Due to lack of grant or funding to do this mini project, I suggested to look for someone who can contribute by designing a banner via our social media. After few days, I received three approaches from my friends, whereas one from Seh Ling’s side. After few rounds of discussion, Jenny was the designer of our photo ID banner! I really appreciate for Jenny’s offer to help and her hard work in making this banner possible.  She made an informative and reader-friendly banner. “Can I name a turtle” was a tagline created by Jenny for our banner! Isn’t this banner lovely?

This banner was made for photo ID at Redang Island and it is also meant for educating the public on how to interact with turtles in an appropriate way. Therefore, guidelines to photograph sea turtles and information about turtle’s biology and threats are illustrated in the banner, in order to promote responsible, ethical and sustainable dive and snorkel practices around sea turtles. This banner will be distributed and put up at various resorts and dive centers throughout the island to reach out more people, encouraging more people on practicing a real ECOTOURISM!

Just like everyone else, I thought I have to be a scientist or biologist to save our nature and the precious species such as sea turtles. However, after getting involved in conservation, I realised that not only scientist or biologist can contribute, but everybody can be and should be part of this as this is our planet. Regardless of your background or expertise, you can play your own role and contribute with own strength. Conservation needs people with marketing background to enhance the NGO’s company profile, people with mass communication background could be the communicator or outreach coordinator, people who are good at writing could write articles to influence the readers, people who are IT pros could help to develop database and website or someone who is passionate on designing like Jenny is also much needed in this industry as most biologists or scientists are not good at Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop! We can be volunteers as manpower is always what a NGO lack of and students can apply for internship at NGOs. We practices go green in our daily lives by eliminating the single-use plastic straws, container and cutlery, supporting zero waste and doing plastic free grocery.

There are many more we could do to help our planet to be better, greener and healthier. If you are not sure how, ring me at lyvia.cks@gmail.com!

NOTE: The words highlighted in orange will be the topic of next article. Stay tuned to find out more!

Disclaimer from author:

This article is not written to accuse anyone but it is meant for education and public awareness. Education starts with arising an issue, discussion, learning from lesson, accepting different perspectives and making a change in attitude. This article is supported with news, links, and photos and statement was made based on scientific knowledge on sea turtle’s biology.

Before stepping my feet into conservation, I have no idea what is really happening around us. I didn’t know how bad the plastic pollution is until I saw the marine debris accumulated at the bay and washed up to the shore. I wasn’t aware of how much plastic consumption, such as plastic straw, plastic bag, and plastic cutlery we used in daily lives until I am now haunted with plastic packaging when I just bought a bread from 7-11. I didn’t understand how tourism could affect the marine wildlife and the entire ecosystem until I get involve in tourism and environmental education. Since the day I choose my biotechnology as my bachelor degree, I know I want to do something for the environment, but I didn’t know how until I started my turtley amazing journey (you may refer to my previous article to understand how amazing it was). For this article, I would like to talk about one of the issues that was taught by turtle conservation, which hit my mind and touched my heart till this moment.

The first time I learnt about turtle feeding was when I heard from the tourists about their amazing experience of interacting with turtles in the water and how excited they were when touching and feeding the turtle for the first time in their life. They told me that the tour guide or operator provided them the squid to feed the turtles and some of them even made profit from selling squid to the tourists to feed the turtles. I am not surprised that many have no idea why we should not feed and touch the marine animals in the wild because feeding turtle, touching coral, picking up sea cucumber, star fish, removing clownfish from sea anemone etc. have become a norm during a snorkeling or diving package (Yes, it’s  something that always happen in front of our eyes and people see it as normal). Turtle viewing is definitely one of the famous tour packages offered by the operators. When there are people who are happy about the turtle viewing trip, of course there are people who came to me with frustration and complained what they saw. As a turtle biologist, I tell the happy tourists and angry tourists the same truth and fact: It is not good to feed or touch marine wildlife, including sea turtles.

The reason of not having direct interaction (feeding or touching) is that this action is a form of harassment to the animals, which can negatively impact their animal behavior, physiology, and even their survival in the wild. Let’s look at an example, which is active turtle feeding activity at Teluk Dalam, Redang Island. Whoever used to join a snorkeling or diving trip to see turtles at Teluk Dalam or watched on a boat will realize the turtles at Teluk Dalam are very “friendly” and “playful” as they are not shy or afraid to approach humans and boats. Instead, they swim towards the boats and human, especially when they are attracted by the smell of squid and raw fish. The guides will normally enter the water together with the tourists and used squid to bait the turtle to come closer and surface, so that the tourists can have a close observation and physical interaction with the turtles. When the turtles surfaces and approaches, there are two types of reaction from the tourists:

(1) The tourists were extremely excited as it was the first time in their life to see a sea turtle at a very close distance. They may start touching or restraining it to take a selfie or close up photo.

(2) The tourists were frightened by the approaching huge turtle, especially when they were not good at swimming. They may start kicking and pushing the turtle around.

Either way of reaction was not good for the turtles and even the tourists’ safety. So how is it not good to the turtles and us?

(1) Negatively impact the health of the turtles

Turtles foraging at Teluk Dalam are green sea turtles, Chelonia mydas. They are herbivores and their natural diet are seagrass, seaweed and algae. Feeding them with squid and raw fish which contain high protein content can cause obesity, stress to body organ, liver damage, and cardiovascular diseases (Stewart et al. 2016).

Reference: Stewart K., Norton T., Mohammed H., Browne D., Clements K., Thomas K., Yaw T., & Horrocks J. (2016). Effects of “swim with the turtles” tourist attractions on green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) health in Barbados, West Indies. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 52(2) Supplement 2016, Wildlife Disease Association 2016, S104–S117. doi: 10.7589/52.2S.S104

(2) Change their natural animal behavior

Turtles in the wild do not approach boats and human. They will swim away instead because they are sensitive to human presence. These “friendly” and “playful” turtles swim towards to boats when they heard of the propeller sound and approach human as they think there are food. In their effort to get food, they might bump into each other or hit by the boat propellers (Stewart et al. 2016). The turtles also sometimes become aggressive when irritated, and they respond by biting humans, which is possibly a sign of being stressed. In short, these turtles are not “friendly” and “playful”, but aggressive and probably stressed out. I encountered two tourists who got bitten by turtles and they were worried about the wound. They told me they are scared of turtles now as they never expect turtle could be this aggressive and bite human. I explained to them that turtles at Teluk Dalam behave differently from the turtles in the wild, as turtles normally swim away or stay a distance from human and do not take initiative to bite unless they are stressed and felt being threatened.

(3) Habituation of turtles to human

These “friendly” and “playful” turtles are usually less afraid of human and this exposes them to more potential threats and dangers, such as being caught by human for their flesh and shells. There was a news that people found turtle carcasses with their plastron (undershell) removed on shore. It is suspected that the plastron and meat of the endangered turtles were probably being sold for consumption or medicinal purposes.

(4) Inappropriate demonstration on human interaction with marine wildlife leads to critical issues of animal ethics and welfare

A lot of news with photos and videos showing how human mistreated sea turtles have surfaced and gone viral in the social media. One of the most heartbreaking news that I have ever read in my life still trigger my anger till today. It was about an unnamed Vietnamese-speaking man riding the sea turtle and abusing it for fun while the turtle was struggling. Another news was about a kid on a boat riding a live turtle and the case happened in Sabah. There are a lot more unreported cases on how humans value and treat wildlife. This tells us that how urgent and important is that the world’s population needs a lot of  environmental education.

Turtle feeding might be a relatively small issue compared to the concern about trafficking, poaching, illegal trade of sea turtle parts, law and enforcement etc. However, turtle feeding is a starting point for the public to think it is okay to feed, it is okay to touch, it is okay to surround them, it is okay to do something that the turtles are not physically bled or suffered from the action of feeding or touching. The detrimental consequences will eventually lead to what happened in the news that I shared as above.

This article could sound really heavy to you, but this is the truth and reality on what is really happening around us. We cannot reverse the tragedy but we can always prevent it to happen again if everyone takes every single lesson serious enough.

Starting in October, the operation of the entire resort is slowing down as the monsoon season approaches. With the low occupancy rate of in-house guests, Turtle Lab is not as hectic as the previous months (Thanks God that we got through the crazy time in July, August and September!). This also means that I can finally take a break from work and have some leisure activities after work (it was too tired to even swim for the past few months!) It’s time to have FUN like everyone does in the island!

1. Body Surfing

I’ve missed few times of having this fun with my friends as I had hatchling release to hold after work. Finally, I got to try it and first try is always the exciting one! Balancing your body on the surf board is the first rule. As a beginner, I kept falling from the board due to imbalance and managed to do it after few attempts. Second step is to wait for the waves and surf! I had so much fun and of course, I got to spend a quality time with Izza, Mas and Lynn (the trainees).

2. Catamaran Sailing

It was my first ride on catamaran. Thanks God it was a windy day but it would be more fun if the wind is stronger according to Mat Din (our captain of catamaran hahahaha). Meanwhile, the Moana’s songs keep playing in my mind (♫♪ See the line where the sky meets the sea It calls me ♫♪). Having a nap on the catamaran is definitely a good idea (I shall try next time)!

3. ATV Riding

It was my first adventure with ATV too! I can’t ride a motorbike but ATV is really easy to control! Some unexpected incidents happened when we ventured into the forest. Balqis, Dira and I were trapped in the middle of the journey as Dira’s ATV was out of battery and I accidentally “crashed” into a tree when I was recording a video with my phone. The most exciting moment was racing on the beach!

4. Yoga Session

I never knew that I can sweat that much when doing yoga. I was totally exhausting after 1 hour of yoga session. The yoga room was located on top of the hill, so the sea view was superb! I especially like the session where I was asked to relax my mind and entire body for almost 15 minutes to have a peace of mind which I needed the most! I learned few yoga pose and it was funny at the beginning as I always lost my balance.

5. Beach Photoshoot

As I work in the daytime and leave work in the evening (sometimes the night falls when I leave the resort), I barely get a chance to take photo under the hot sun and clear sky. Besides that, the sky was always gloomy due to the pouring rain as the monsoon season is around the corner. On the last day of the trainees (Izza, Mas and Lynn) staying at Redang Island upon completion of internship, we head out to take BEACH photos! I got some good shots!

6. Advanced Open Water Course!

This was absolutely unexpected plan for this year!! I am now a Advanced Open Water Diver! I shall share this in the next article, stay tune!

7. Taaras Staff Appreciation Night a.k.a Staff Party

Although we are not Taaras’s employees, but we were invited to the party to join the fun. As the theme of the appreciation night was cultural night, I wore a baju kebaya (I seriously think that I look like a teacher in baju kebaya!) The food was good, performance was really entertaining (Especially the fashion show!!) and I took a lot of photos with the Sport & Recreation friends. The prizes of lucky draw were surprisingly awesome and Along (my best friend at Redang) won a 3D2N stay in Berjaya Langkawi Resort! The night was ended with a drink at Juki Restaurant with Along.

8. Beach Volleyball Tournament 

It was also my FIRST TIME playing in a game. As Sport and Recreation team lack of girl player, I had no choice but joined them to make up the numbers. Our team played really well and I got to hit the ball for few times even though it didn’t pass the net (I’m not a good player!) My team was supportive enough and gave me encouragement in the game! What impressed me the most was to see how everybody played his own role and had each other back (They covered my well enough and I could’t ask for more). Lastly, we won the game!

In the blink of an eyes, it’s my last month of working in Turtle Lab, living on an island, and having a life away from city. We always realize how fast time flies only when we need to say goodbye. It feels like everything has just happened yesterday, which I can even taste the tears when I cried to Jason about my worries on the night before I left the mainland. It wasn’t easy at all at the beginning and I’m really glad that I survived through those pain and harsh moments. It left with not more than 2 weeks and I knew this is going to be another hardest goodbye in my life.

NOTE: This is throwback post that should be posted in October, 2018. NO MORE DELAY LYVIA!

“Teacher” was never in my ambition list since I was young as I don’t like teaching and I was always impatient when teaching. However, I was educating people almost every single day when I started working in sea turtle conservation, especially working at Turtle Lab.

Sharing knowledge about turtles with the in-house guests occupied 70% of my working hour. I learnt how to spark someone’s interest and curiosity to know more about turtles, to engage them in conversation about conservation, and to educate them why we are responsible in protecting the environment and the animals residing on this planet. I then realised how important public education is because this is how we reach out, create awareness, and impact the others to make a step forward. A strong passion for sharing knowledge and involving in education has grown further since I met Taha.

I met Taha, a teacher from SOLS 24/7,  who works as a community center manager during a ferry trip from Kuala Terengganu to Redang Island. Through the conversation, we got to know that both of us were actually working at the same place and we started to talk about our job, Redang Island, and everything. He was teaching the Taaras’s staff and local kids (children at Redang Island) for English and Communication, meanwhile I was working at Turtle Lab. Knowing that how much I love turtles and sharing about turtles, Taha invited me to his class to share with kids. I was very happy for his invitation and said yes without hesitation!

I was really excited for the class as I never get a chance to hold a sharing session with the kids. To have a more interesting and interactive sharing with the kids, I prepared some slides for the class. As the local kids are not very fluently in English but it was a English class, the sharing session was bilingual, which I taught in Malay and English. Here are some of the slides that I created for the class:

Besides introducing turtle and its biology, I also took the opportunity to tell the kids how we can save turtles by omitting some of our habits in daily lives, with simple but impactful steps!

The class was unexpectedly smooth with the full attention and participation by the kids. They were keen to learn and stay with me for almost an hour. According to Taha, it is really hard to make children to stay focus for such a long period!

Overall, it was a great experience and I think this will not be the last time to teach 😉

NOTE: This post supposed to be posted in October, 2018. I’ve just realised that this post was left in the draft box and haven’t published yet. It is a throwback and more throwbacks as I have more in the draft box so stay tune!!

It’s been 10 months and 13 days of leaving home and staying at Terengganu, 4 months and 14 days of working on an island. It is still unbelievable whenever I recall how my journey of turtle conservation started.

Just like the other child, I dreamt to become a scientist and I love science more than any subject. I chose science stream and studied biology, chemistry and physics during secondary school. I applied Biotechnology for my bachelor’s degree. And now, I am studying Master in Zoology and being part of sea turtle conservation. Everything was started with the same reason: I want to contribute to nature using the knowledge and skills that I have. Realizing humans are destroying the planet, joining in the conservation effort is how I can help to make the world a better place, for human and the wildlife.

After graduated with a Degree in Biotechnology, I patiently waited for the offer from EcoHealth Alliance (the company that I had my internship) as the project manager was keen to hire me as employee. Meanwhile, I sent my CV to all NGOs I know in Malaysia. Unfortunately, I wasn’t selected after the interview with EcoHealth Alliance and I received replies from the other NGOs like, “We are sorry that we are not hiring at the moment. We will notify you if there is any job opportunity.”.

Reality hits me really hard. Since then, I tried sending my CV to commercial testing laboratories and I was then hired as lab executive of a company manufacturing petroleum based product. I thought that my dream of working in conservation will never come true and probably it’s time for me to accept the fact. However, I clearly know that working in commercial testing laboratory is not a job I wanted because I know myself well enough. I do not want a 9-to-5 job with repeating daily work routine and a life frustrated by traffic jam before and after work.

Life never fail to astonish me. After working for three weeks in the lab, I got a phone call from Dr. Uzair, who is the team leader of Sea Turtle Research Unit (SEATRU), which dramatically changed my life. After reviewing my CV that I attached in the previous job application, he decided to offer me an opportunity of pursuing a Master Degree in Zoology under SEATRU. The tuition fee will be fully funded by the research grant and I will be receiving allowance to support my living expenses. It was the open door to conservation, and also the turning point of my life. Without hesitation, I placed my resign letter.

So that’s how everything started. I left my beloved home, family, and friends and ventured into an entirely new life at Kuala Terengganu. Without any related background and limited knowledge about marine, I started with studying about biology of sea turtles. In the meantime, I am working for SEATRU as graduate research assistant. After six months, I was then appointed to initiate a new project (Public Viewing Laboratory) at Redang Island, where I started my island life as in-house turtle researcher at The Taaras Resort. Throughout the journey, I was exposed to on-ground conservation work and understand how conservation works in real life.

People asked me, “do you actually plan for this?” Not really. I’m not good at planning my life. But “follow your passion and own your life” is always what I insist. People have been telling me that taking finance or accounting courses offer me a higher salary, there are very less job opportunities for biotechnology graduate, working in conservation will never make you to become a millionaire etc. At the end of the day, I still choose to work for passion. It is not about getting rich, but working in conservation is a rewarding career that gives me the fulfillment that I want to have in life.

I’m here to share my story on how I started my journey in sea turtle conservation because I want to tell you that it is possible to work for passion and it is never too late to go after your dream. You might be struggling a lot along the way as it might be something new for you which it takes time to learn, there might be a lot of negative voices from the others that makes you doubt, people might tell you this is a bad idea etc. But, ask yourself a question, what do you really want in your life? I found mine and I wish you found yours too.

It is never easy to work for something that you are keen for. Passion gives you the courage to start something, but persistence and determination are what drive you to move forward. Live everyday with a purpose, then you will be getting closer and closer to where you want to be. To the people and things that have made me who I am today, thank you so much and it was “turtley” amazing journey.

One of the great memories I have had at Redang Island was sailing with the Musick family for half a day. I met Bill during his last visit to Redang Island in May 2018. He was impressed with the turtle conservation effort done in Redang Island and he loves Chagar Hutang – our Turtle Santuary! So this time, he brought his family (Becky, the mum; Joey, the son; Melody, the daughter) and Sarah (Melody’s best friend) with him. And I was the coordinator for this day trip.

We set off at 10AM from The Taaras Resort. I was very excited as it was my first time getting onto a sailing yahct! The yacht isn’t luxurious as the others but it is very safe to live inside as it was designed specifically to provide stability and shock absorption in rough seas. The space inside the yacht is limited, but it is compact and well equipped. There’s a living room attached with kitchen (don’t be surprised of the stove, freezer and washing machine!), a master room attached with washroom (a bed that can fit two persons), and two single rooms. The interior is designed to be space saving as you can literally store items everywhere! There are snacks stored behind the sofa, books kept under the staircase, and even underneath the floor!

While Becky showed me around and I was amazed by the yacht’s interior, Bill and Joey were busy sailing. They ignited the generator to thrust forward the yacht, then it accelerated based on the wind speed. I witnessed the entire process and it was really stunning to view the sea on a yacht! As the yacht was moved according to the wind speed, we arrived Chagar Hutang later than usual (it usually takes 10 to 15 minutes from The Taaras by speed boat).

The day trip was assisted by Wong, the intern student of SEATRU and Kelvin, the master student from University of Queensland. Upon arrival, a briefing was given by Wong. We shared with the Musick Family about knowledge of sea turtles and their relationship with Redang Island. I also explained to them the importance of establishing turtle sanctuary at Chagar Hutang and the conservation work done on the ground (I will share more at the next article!).

Referring the incubation period recorded in the turtle hatchling form, we were lucky that there was a hawksbill’s nest ready to be excavated on that day. Wong demonstrated how to do nest excavation and Melody got to try too.

When heading back to The Taaras, I sat beside Bill and asked him about sailing. We had a good chat on how the Musick family started their sailing journey and what they have gone through. I always wondered how the life of sailing around world would be, and after hearing their stories, I finally could get a picture of it. Bill and his family have been sailing for three years. Living a life like the Musick family looks fancy from the outside (just like how people think about my job), but indeed there are more things to do for having a sailing yacht (engine maintenance, reading weather report sent from radio, navigation, planning the trip etc).

I never thought that I could sail a yacht in my life and it came true! Below is the conversation I had with Bill.

Bill : Lyvia, you’re in charge now!
Me : What? Me?
Bill : Yes, I’m going to have a break. Somebody takes her picture (whispering). Don’t hit the rock.
Me : The rock is still far away, don’t worry!

(After ten minutes)

Bill : You really don’t want to go back for work? Are you focussing?!
Me : It is really hard for me to make the boat moving straight! But I do wish that I’m off from work today.
Bill : You did a good job anyway, some people just run away!
Me : Thanks Bill, you’re in charge now! (Continue enjoying my snacks prepared by Becky)

NOTE: The words highlighted in orange will be the topic of next article. Stay tuned to find out more! And I’m sorry for the low resolution photos because I lost the original copies of these photos (I cropped these out from my Instagram LOL)!

Turtle hatchling release is always the most exciting and anticipating event for the guests and us as the babies can finally be set free to the sea! Since the hatchling release does not occur on a regular basis, the announcement of holding a release will only be made on the day itself, depending on the condition of the hatchlings.

How do we know if the baby turtles can be released? The answer is the size of the yolk sac. All the baby turtles have a prominent yolk sac attached at their abdomen, which serves as the energy supply during the early life phase before foraging in the sea independently. Upon hatching, the baby turtles still have a protruding yolk sac. The yolk sac will be getting smaller due to consumption of reserved energy by the babies from day to day. Meanwhile, carapace (shell) straightening happens along with yolk internalization (the shell is still curved when they’re just hatched). Hence, when the yolk sac is flatenned and the shell is straightened, the turtle babies are ready to be released!

It is exciting to witness and experience the magical moment of releasing the baby turtles to the sea, but it is also important to do it right! There is a Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) established and practiced by Turtle Lab and the guests have to strictly follow it. Before the release, a brief talk will be given by us regarding the sea turtle conservation at Redang Island and the “Dos and Don’ts” throughout the release event.

Turtle hatchling release will be hold either early in the morning or in the late evening, but not at night because there is a risk of baby turtle being stepped due to darkness and baby turtles might be disoriented due to distraction from the lights on shore. Therefore, we always hold the release in the late evening, which is at 6.45PM at the beach of the resort. Besides that, a boundary will be set as the release zone and all people have to stand beyond the boundary.

We also aim to instil the mindset of “no touching and harassing marine wildlife such as sea turtles” among the public. Hence, rather than holding the baby turtles with bare hand, a container is prepared for the guests to retain the baby turtles instead in order to avoid human contact. Whereas, Dira, Balqis and I will be wearing gloves when transferring the baby turtles into the containers.

After the release, some guests will approach us to say thank you and ask us few questions. One of the frequently asked questions is, “How many of them can survive?”. Our answer is, “It depends on their fate. On a global scale, it is estimated that 1 out of  1000 can survive to adulthood” and everyone is shocked of this fact! Knowing the survival rate of 1:1000, we still pray for the baby turtles and wish them a safe journey in the ocean.

Although it needs a lot of preparation and work to be done before, during and after the release, I still love holding a turtle hatchling release with the guests. The fulfillment of witnessing the little one heading towards sea without fear of uncertainty is indescribable and I am pleased to share the joy with the guests!