Updates on Our Progress

First I would like to thank all our well-wishers in this new journey we are undertaking. We are progressing, albeit at a moderate pace. Apart from developing the TCC (with a lot of passion), we continue to be involved in external tasks started when I was attached to UMT.

Pelf and I completed a mission to Acheh Tamiang in early August where we were tasked by a US funding agency to assess a terrapin project proposal located in the Seruway District. We went, we saw, confirmed that the species of interest was the painted terrapin, gave the project full marks and are happy that our colleagues across the Straits of Melaka will be awarded funds to carry out this pioneering project in a remote part of Acheh Tamiang.

A week ago, I was in Sandakan as Technical Advisor to a bilateral marine turtle meeting. We had the rare opportunity of visiting both the Sabah and Philippines Turtle Islands. Nesting numbers of green turtles there are nothing short of amazing. On a peak night, 120 nests are deposited per night in Baguan Island! On the Sabah side, a peak night renders about 60 nests. Our islands are less than a third of the size of the Philippines ones. While in Sandakan, I took the opportunity to do some sight-seeing. Its highly recommended for those who have not been there before.

Back in TCC, we have submitted proposals to two international funding agencies and one to a Malaysian-based one. Titles of these projects are:

1. Elevating survival prospects for the critically endangered southern river terrapin (Batagur affinis) of Terengganu, Malaysia, through research, conservation, local community participation, public outreach and education.
2. Working with fishermen to determine performance of head-started river terrapins and population status of painted terrapins in the Setiu River.
3. Monitoring the progress of newly-emerged hatchlings released into the Setiu River.

We are still in the process of looking for a suitable site to house the TCC. Our US-funders, the Turtle Survival Alliance will be arriving in early September to help in the process and to design a Turtle Rescue Centre with the assistance of a local architect.

We are also developing our TCC logo. Yisin, the fresh graduate who did the artwork for the latest T-shirt of the TRRG is now working with me to come up with an appealing logo. We will post these for comments later before we adopt the logo. Yisin and I are also working on a children’s book that has been incubating in my mind for years.

Meanwhile, we are still monitoring and analyzing terrapins caught by fishermen in the Setiu River. This project is slowly revealing some pretty amazing information on both the painted and river terrapins of the Setiu River.

Pictures will be posted when I get them downloaded from my camera and resized.