Our river surveys in full swing

We have started on this ambitous project of surveying eight rivers in Terengganu for the presence of river terrapins, access their major threats and look into the possibility of initiating egg protection programs in the rivers.

The task appeared formidable at first, but once we got started, the interview-based surveys went off rather well. Pelf is commended for making the arrangements with the Village Headmen (names and contact numbers sourced from the respective District Officers).

The first interviews were conducted on 11 fishermen from the Setiu River. This was smooth as we know them rather well.  We were a little apprehensive about the survey of Sungai Keluang Besar in Kampong Pekan Sari Tembila as this was a new territory for us. But En. Marzuki, the village headman was very friendly and so were the six other fishermen who came to the Balai Raya (community hall) for the interviews. One of them has even invited us to go survey the river with him in his boat. We will do this at a later date if time allows.

The third village covered (Kampung Keluang) was on Sungai Keluang Kecil. Again, we were touched by the friendliness of the fishermen and their cooperation. Everyone involved was all smiles. We were indeed pleased to show our appreciation to all the interviewees by giving them each a TCC T-shirt and a copy of “Duta Kecil Penyu” (the malay version of “Little Turtle Messenger”).

The results of the interviews are being compiled. One positive outcome is that we enlisted the cooperation of the licensed egg collector in Keluang for painted terrapin eggs to initiate the incubation of the eggs.

The pictures below show some of the fishermen being interviewed and group pictures of most of the fishermen who were interviewed in the two villages we covered on the 30th of July 2010.

We would like to acknowledge our thanks to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for their support of this project, Low Si En for volunteering to help us conduct some of the interviews, En. Alias and En. Marzuki for arranging for the fishermen to come for the interviews and all the fishermen involved for their cooperation.