News

Blogging to help save turtles

Date: 20 October 2009
By: Sean Augustin
Source: The New Straits Times

KUALA TERENGGANU: Conservationists Prof Chan Eng Heng, 59, Chen Pelf Nyok, 28, and Chang Kew Fong, 25, plan to stay awake for 24 hours on Sunday, just so they can blog.

But it is not because the trio want to set a personal record of how much they can write before hitting the sack.

They are doing it for the turtles as they hope the blogathon will help raise funds for the newly-established Turtle Conservation Centre in Setiu.

The centre aims to restore the depleted wild population of fresh water, terrestrial and marine turtles in the country, especially in northern Terengganu.

The blogathon will begin at 9pm.

“We will be publishing a blog post every hour about freshwater and marine turtles.

“If there are things that you’d like to know about marine and freshwater turtles but never knew who to ask, this is your chance.

“You have until Sunday to submit the questions and we will post the answers,” said Chan, who is also the centre’s co-founder.

For Chen, this will be her third run at blogging for 24 hours.

She had participated in two blogathons in 2006 and 2007 previously.

“My third blogathon should be easier as I have Prof Chan and Fong for company.

“And we are not taking shifts either.

“We don’t have a strategy as yet on staying awake for the whole day but we won’t be brewing coffee,” she said, adding that there would be three guest bloggers.

About Dr. Chen Pelf Nyok

Dr. Chen is the co-founder of Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia. She currently heads the community-based River Terrapin Conservation Project in Kemaman, Terengganu, Malaysia.