The Kirks

We went to Turtle Island yesterday.
Last we were allowed to watch a Green Turtle mother laying eggs. She was new to the island and so the rangers gave her a tag in each flipper. She was number 28851 and she was the 797th turtle to come to the island in 2005. She laid 100 eggs (exactly!) which the ranger collected and put in a bucket. We were allowed to hold an egg before the ranger buried them in Hatchery number 2. They told us that if a Turtle is in a nest with the sun on it for most of the day then the majority of the babies are likely to be female. If they are in the shade then the majority is likely to be male. That night, 1596 eggs were laid by 19 turtles which came to lay eggs. Most of them were Green Turtles but some were Hawksbill Turtles.
After the ranger buried the eggs we were allowed to hold a baby turtle which had just hatched before we released them into the sea. Hannah’s called hers Seashore, Dad called his Turto, Mum called her’s Emily Rose and I called mine Bibo. They were about the size of a sugar packet and very cute and sweet.
Turtle Island gives meaning to the word “Desert Island”. It is very remote (almost 1 hour into the South China sea from Sandakan). There is no drinking water and shower water is pumped directly from the sea. In the afternoon before the Turtles arrived, I went snorkelling and saw several jellyfish and some really interesting fish.
Turtle Island is very protective of it’s wildlife. If you remove coral you get a fine of 100,000 RM (which is about 20 thousand pounds) and three years in jail. The conservation effort seems to be working as they had over 12 thousand turtle visitors in 2004 and more than 500,000 hatchlings were released that year.