Letter to the Editor: Get Serious Against Turtle Egg Consumption

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

GET SERIOUS AGAINST TURTLE EGG CONSUMPTION

 

At least once a year, volunteers from the Malaysian Nature Society assist local turtle conservation and management centres by cleaning up the premises, sprucing up turtle quarantine ponds and hatcheries, carrying out beach clean-ups and releasing turtle hatchlings. Our volunteers include children as young as two, in the hope that our efforts will go a little way towards ensuring the continued survival of these amazing and gentle marine animals. A lot of resources have gone into educating the local communities on the need to protect turtle populations, and discouraging littering, poaching and turtle egg consumption.

 

And this is what makes the incident in which Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Beluran UMNO Division Chief Datuk James Ratib were photographed dining at a restaurant in which large quantities of turtle eggs were served all the more disheartening and disappointing. More dispiriting still are the excuses made expressing ignorance, firstly of what type of eggs were on the table, next, of the menu and the decision to serve turtle eggs, and then, of the law prohibiting the sale and consumption of turtle eggs in the state of Sabah. At no point did the Minister express regret or outrage that the turtle eggs were served, or support for conservation laws protecting endangered species such as turtles. The Minister’s dismissive responses and claim of ignorance of the law further reflect poorly on the mindset of those in a decision-making capacity in relation to issues of environmental and wildlife conservation and animal protection.

 

As a Minister with such an important portfolio, his plea of ignorance – that he was not aware of what eggs they were, that he did not know turtle eggs would be served, and that he was not aware it was illegal to sell and consume turtle eggs – is unacceptable. Not only is it clear from the photographic evidence that the Minister did not object to the fact that turtle eggs were served and consumed, it is also a matter of concern that he repeatedly attempted to deflect blame, first to the organisers of the event, then to the restaurateur, and most recently to unknown and unnamed “outsiders” without acknowledging that a wildlife crime had been committed, that he had been a party to it whether intentionally or otherwise, and that he has a duty to cooperate with the authorities and wildlife NGOs to ensure that action is taken against those responsible for the offence. Whether or not the Minister had himself consumed the turtle eggs due to his claim of high cholesterol levels is less important than the fact that he had witnessed a wildlife offence and did not feel that it was his responsibility to address or stop it. Malaysian citizens do not need to know if a Minister has high cholesterol levels. We do, however, need to know that when an elected representative witnesses a crime, he or she is willing to call out the guilty parties, stop the crime, prevent a reoccurrence and do whatever it is within his or her power to ensure laws are enforced expeditiously and fairly.

 

Malaysia already has a reputation, internationally, as a hub for wildlife trafficking, trade and exploitation.  Marine pollution, coastal development and erosion, destructive fishing methods, deliberate poaching and turtle egg consumption have all contributed to a drastic decline in turtle populations. According to WWF Malaysia, leatherback turtle populations have declined by more than 99% and Olive Ridley turtles by more than 95%, while Hawksbill and Green turtle populations have decreased since the 1970s and only recently appeared to have stabilised in certain states thanks to concerted conservation, education, awareness and enforcement efforts. Even with the best of intervention measures, turtle survival rates remain low, with only an estimated one in a thousand hatchlings surviving to maturity and breeding age.

 

I believe I speak for all concerned citizens when I urge that the state wildlife authorities investigate this matter thoroughly, that all elected representatives take a firm stance against the exploitation of and trade in wildlife and endangered species, including but not limited to the consumption of turtle eggs, and that the sale and consumption of turtle eggs be removed from state jurisdiction and be made a Federal offence.

 

The matter at hand is not a political one. The offence is not less heinous or more easily condoned had it been associated with someone linked with another political party, or individuals with no political affiliations at all. The trade in and exploitation of endangered species and the destruction of Malaysia’s natural heritage should be the concern of all rational and responsible human beings as denizens of the planet, and not merely the concern of ‘environmental organisations’ and ‘conservation groups’.

 

 

 

WONG EE LYNN

COORDINATOR,

GREEN LIVING SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP,

MALAYSIAN NATURE SOCIETY, SELANGOR

 

Holiday Gift Exchange Alternatives

PENCINTA ALAM DECEMBER 2015
ECO KIDS COLUMN
HOLIDAY GIFT EXCHANGE ALTERNATIVES
By Wong Ee Lynn
(wongeelynn@yahoo.com / gl.mnselangor@yahoo.com)

 

 

The end of the year is approaching, and with it comes Christmas, End-of-Year and New Year parties and family reunions. It is great to be able to spend time with family and friends, but having to buy gifts for everyone is rough on the pocket and the environment! Too often, we end up buying cheap trinkets because we have run out of money and ideas. This year, instead of buying more unnecessary gifts that will end up in landfills, do consider some of these alternatives to the traditional holiday gift exchange:

 

 

1. POOL TOGETHER MONEY FOR A WORTHY CAUSE

Whether it's to provide Orang Asli families with Nokero solar light bulbs (https://www.facebook.com/ProjectLightAHome/) or to raise funds for the endangered sun bear (www.bsbcc.org.my/), announce your chosen cause ahead of time, put up posters and buntings explaining your cause, and put out a decorated money tin or jar to collect contributions for your chosen cause. Each guest anonymously contributes what she or he can afford to. To make things for fun, organise one or two themed games such as a solar lamp treasure hunt in the dark or Pin-The-Yellow-Bib-On-The-Sun-Bear's-Chest.

 

2. HAVE A HOLIDAY VOLUNTEER PROJECT

Instead of making waste, make memories! Gather supplies and get your guests to sit down for an after-meal session of repairing and covering books for a community library, writing postcards to senior citizens or children in hospitals, turning old t-shirts and cardboard tubes into toys for shelter animals, sorting clothes and toiletries for the homeless, collecting and packing food for the underprivileged, baking pet treats for an animal shelter, making bird feeders or making a meal for the homeless and underprivileged. If you live near a park or forested area, have an after-meal walk and give out garbage bags and cotton gardening gloves to get your guests to help clean up the area. Planting trees and edible plants to provide food for birds and wildlife would be a good idea as well. Some guests might find this initially less exciting than receiving a wrapped gift, but they will change their minds once they look back on the photos in months to come, and think of the positive difference they made.

 

3. HAVE A CRAFTING OR BAKING SESSION

Inform your guests in advance what supplies you wish them to purchase, or what equipment (baking trays, rolling pins, scissors) you want them to bring. Ensure you have all the items, equipment and instructions you need. Guests then work together to make crafts for each other, and extras can go to charity. You can bake cakes and cookies or make sweets and jellies, and if crafting, you can make soaps, rainbow crayons, Perler/Pyssla bead ornaments, handmade cards, bracelets, lanyard keychains and other items to give to each other, sell to raise funds for charity, or give as gifts to women and children in shelter homes.

 

4. HAVE A BOOK EXCHANGE

Each guest should bring 1-2 books that are in good condition. School books, text books, magazines, anything outdated, and colouring/activity books that have been used/scribbled in, and diaries/notebooks are ineligible for the book exchange. The books should ideally be story books or non-fiction books that you have yourself enjoyed and are ready to pass on to someone else. At the end of the party, each guest chooses a book to bring home, and as such will have reading material that is new to him or her. Books that are not taken at the end of the day can be donated to a community library.

 

5. SANTA MISSION WITH A TWIST

 

Do you know the names of the cleaners, security guards, librarians, gardeners and cooks at your school, apartment or neighbourhood? What about the postmen, road sweepers, rubbish collectors, and people who cut the grass and unclog the drains? Often they live far from their families and work hard for very little pay, doing work that no-one else wants to do. Inform your guests that you will be making gifts for these special and hardworking individuals. They can also add other worthy recipients to the list. Each guest brings a little something -- snacks, baked goods, fruits, toiletries and practical or fun items, and adds them to bags for each recipient. Go out and deliver your gifts together to your chosen recipients and wish them a happy holiday.

 

6. GIVE A GIFT OF TIME

If your gift exchange is traditionally restricted to family, you might want to consider giving your loved ones a gift of time by offering to do certain chores for them, e.g. walking and bathing the family dog, cleaning the cat litter trays for a week, cleaning the interior and exterior of the family car, spring cleaning the storeroom, babysitting a younger sibling or packing school lunches for a younger sibling. Again, while this might not seem as exciting as receiving a wrapped gift, your acts of kindness and service can be of immense help to a loved one during a busy and stressful holiday period and will be more deeply appreciated than another plastic trinket or coffee mug.

 

7. HAVE A COOKIE OR SNACK EXCHANGE

If you and your friends enjoy baking, hold a cookie/baked treats exchange where you each bake a large tray of goodies and then trade with your friends so that each one goes home with a variety of treats. If baking is not your thing, have a snack exchange where you bring your favourite snack and attach a note to it informing others why you like this treat (e.g. it is a traditional snack from your hometown, or eating it reminds you of a beloved aunt or cousin) At the end of the party, each guest brings home someone else's favourite snack. It is a good way of learning more about a friend and the things he or she likes. Although some snacks may come in plastic packaging, a snack as a gift is still less wasteful than a plastic trinket.

 

8. HAVE A PLANT EXCHANGE

If you are able to give your guests at least 2-3 weeks' notice of your party, get everyone to grow something in a pot, either from seed or clippings. On the day of the party, exchange your plants so you will each have something new to green your home with. Be aware, though, that some plants can be harmful to pets and young children, so do look it up online to ensure that your chosen plant is safe to be given away. Mint, pandan, lemongrass, spider plants, orchids, ferns, air plants, jade plants and most succulents are all reported to be safe for pets and young children.

 

9. PLAY THE AFFIRMATION GAME

Instead of a store-bought gift, give your friends the gift of love and validation. For each guest, you need a pen and a thick sheet of colourful construction paper. You can cut the construction paper into shapes of trees or stars for a more festive touch. Use double-sided tape to stick the construction paper to the back of each guest. Guests go around writing nice things on each other's construction papers, either noting someone's good qualities (e.g. "You are generous with your colour pencils") or thanking them for specific kind gestures (e.g. "Thank you for being my first friend when I moved to this school"). At the end of the game, guests carefully peel their cards off their backs and read all the nice things written about them. This can be a very empowering and encouraging game to play, especially in a classroom environment. This is a gift most people would love to look at over and over again, especially when they are feeling blue.

 

10. HAVE AN EXPERIENCE GIFT

Spending time with and on your loved ones is far more meaningful than spending money. It is sad to see gift recipients shutting themselves up in their rooms with their new electronic gadgets, isolating themselves from the rest of the family, on a day when you should all be connecting with one another. Instead of material gifts, organise an experience gift for your family or a group of your best friends. Paddleboarding, parasailing, ice skating, laser tag, paintball and concerts are all fantastic experience gifts if you can afford it, but if you can't, you can always go camping, jungle trekking, birdwatching, stargazing and volunteering. If the Great Outdoors isn't your thing, have a challenge where you and your friends go on a day-long LRT/bus ride to photograph yourselves at a predetermined list of 50 famous landmarks. Material gifts can increase isolation and resentment (i.e. from not getting what one had asked for, or from comparing gifts with those received by others) but spending time together will bring you closer together. 

 

Have an environmentally-responsible holiday season and a very Happy New Year, everyone!
 

Letter to the Editor: Shark Fishing Neither Accidental Nor Negligible

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

SHARK FISHING NEITHER ACCIDENTAL NOR NEGLIGIBLE

It is with incredulity that Malaysians responded to the Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Dato’ Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek’s statements that there was no necessity for a ban on shark finning in Malaysia as it is not a domestic industry, and that sharks were not caught on purpose (Oct6).

This flies in the face of statistics supplied by wildlife conservation organization, TRAFFIC, which reports that Malaysia has the eight highest rate of shark catch in the world, with 231,212 tons caught from 2002 until 2011. For an ‘industry that doesn’t exist’, this number is alarmingly high.

For an ‘industry that doesn’t exist’ in Malaysia, finding sharks and shark fins being sold openly also seems to be a worryingly common sight. In fact, a feature story in The Star in Oct 2014 even tries to pass off the sale of a juvenile shark as ‘ecotourism’.

To conclude that there is no need for a ban on shark finning because ‘sharks are not caught on purpose’ shows a grave lack of awareness on the Minister’s part on environmental issues in Malaysia. Once this excuse is made on behalf of poachers and fishermen, there will be no shortage of individuals catching endangered species for profit and consumption and claiming that sharks, turtles and other protected species were accidental by-catch.

 

There is also no logic to the argument that there should not be a ban or restriction on a destructive activity simply because it was unintentional. Whether the sharks were caught by fishermen on purpose does not detract from the fact that shark populations in Malaysia are under threat.

 

A 2014 study published in conservation journal eLife reports that 25% of all shark species are under threat of extinction. Blacktip reef sharks and spot-tail sharks, found in Malaysia and frequently sold and consumed, are listed as near-threatened on the IUCN Red List.

 

Despite being portrayed in popular culture as merciless killers, sharks actually have a vital role to play in the marine ecosystem as top predators at the pinnacle of the marine food pyramid. As sharks usually hunt old, weak or sick prey, they help to keep the prey population healthy and strong, enabling these more naturally fit animals to reproduce and pass on their genes. Sharks also trim down many populations of marine animals to the right size, and therefore mitigate the harm these species cause to the marine ecosystem through overpopulation. Sharks regulate the behaviour of prey species, and prevent them from over-grazing vital habitats.  The effects of removing sharks from ocean ecosystems, although complex and rather unpredictable, are very likely to be ecologically and economically damaging.

Sharks are an incredibly fragile 'keystone species', partly due to the fact that sharks are slow-growing animals that mature late, live long, and have a low reproduction rate. The depletion of shark populations may cause the entire marine food web to collapse, resulting in the loss of commercially important fish and shellfish species as well.

It is clear to anyone from the high rates of shark fishing in Malaysia that sharks are a targeted and not accidental catch, and that there is a market in Malaysia for shark meat and shark fins. A ban on shark fishing would therefore go a long way towards protecting shark populations. From a human health point of view, heavy metals and other environmental toxins accumulate in plant and animal tissues through the well-documented process of bioaccumulation. Sharks are prone to bioaccumulation through diet, as they incorporate metals very efficiently and eliminate them slowly. Eating shark meat exposes the consumer to these potentially dangerous toxins, in particular, high levels of the methyl mercury. While a certain amount of mercury in the environment is natural, growing worldwide pollution of our oceans is increasing the risk of high mercury levels in the fish we eat, particularly fish at the top of the food chain like sharks. Consuming sharks will increase the level of mercury one ingests, which will in turn increase one's risk of neurological disorders, coronary heart disease and other serious health issues.

 

It is critical that there is legislation to monitor fishing vessels and their fishing methods to prevent overfishing, and to ban shark fishing and enforce penalties for the capture of and trade in sharks. Apart from targeted fishing, sharks are also threatened by pollution and habitat destruction. As such, marine protected areas must be established to protect marine ecosystems and habitats to mitigate the effects of pollution and habitat loss to shark populations.

 

As a concerned citizen, I hope that our ministers will demonstrate clear thinking and good judgement in addressing environmental and other issues, and work together with credible advocacy groups, including conservation organisations, to obtain verifiable data and information that will assist them in making the best decisions for the country.

 

WONG EE LYNN

COORDINATOR,

GREEN LIVING SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP,

MALAYSIAN NATURE SOCIETY, SELANGOR

 

 

Green Living's Annual Turtle Volunteer Programme 2015

The following is a pictorial report of MNS Green Living's visit-and-volunteer session at the Turtle Conservation and Information Centre in Pengkalan Balak, Melaka. If you are a participant of the said programme, please feel free to save, copy and reuse any photo you like. If you wish to have any of the photos removed or hidden for privacy/confidentiality reasons, please contact the admin of this blog to have the photo removed.

 

Briefing session in the exhibition room/gallery:

 

 

Our very excited and noisy kids attempting to help sell merchandise. Apologies to the researchers trying to listen to a talk in the auditorium!

 

 

Cleaning the first turtle holding pond and gently cleaning algae off the carapace of the quarantine turtles:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cleaning the second turtle holding pond:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Look at me, I'm a pinecone! I'm just a small floating pinecone!"

(Note: These hatchlings were found by the fishermen and local folk and brought in to the Centre. They will be released at a safe time and place at the earliest opportunity).

 

 

 

 

Video session in the auditorium:

 

 

Cleaning up the hatchery and pulling out weeds:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beach cleanup session:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turtle hatchling release session:

 

 

Many thanks to all our participants and volunteers for your contribution, hard work and support.

 

To find out more about the Turtle Conservation and Information Centre, contact them at the numbers and address provided below:

Pusat Konservasi dan Penerangan Penyu

Turtle Conservation and Information Centre

Pantai Padang Kemunting,

Masjid Tanah,

Pengkalan Balak,

Melaka.

Phone/Fax: 06 384 6754

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/#!/hawksbill.ecoclub.3