KOTA KINABALU: A committee has been set up to formulate an action plan, which will be presented to the State Cabinet, to stop the poaching of sea turtles in Sabah.
According to a committee member, Dr James Alin, it comprises all the enforcement agencies like the Marine Police, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and Sabah Parks, and it was set up on the instruction of Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun.
“We had a meeting on Wednesday with the Ministry of Tourism and Datuk Masidi called up all enforcement agencies. They are going to prepare a Cabinet paper and will present it to the Cabinet.
The contents of that cabinet paper will be an action plan on how to prevent similar incidences from happening,” said Dr James, who recently reported the location of what seemed to be a mass killing field of protected sea turtles on Pulau Tiga located at the northern side of Balambangan-Banggi channel, north of Kudat.
Dr James, when met at the Sabah Tourist Guides Association’s (STGA) annual dinner on Sunday night, claimed that it was revealed during the meeting that the relevant authorities like the Sabah Wildlife Department and the MMEA knew about the matter.
MMEA, he claimed, also knew about the matter before he visited the island and saw for himself the turtle carcasses.
“MMEA did an investigation, they didn’t find any conclusion. They went to the site… Sabah Parks and Wildlife Department went to the site, and they found only 47 (turtle carcasses), I think. I don’t understand why because I wasn’t the only one who counted it,” he said.
“So I suspect that the turtle carcasses were buried in the sand because of high tide. Some were washed away. Some simply rotted and were eaten by monitor lizards,” he said.
Dr James, in his report which can be found on www.BorneoColours.com, said that he counted 60 turtle carcasses on the island, which is located within the proposed Tun Mustapha Marine Park.
His report stated, “At the tip of the island (north east), slightly hidden by trees, two sites were strewn with 60 carcasses of sea turtle. Stench from the carcasses was overwhelming, leftover flesh and discarded internal organs were decomposing. Some carcasses were with a carapace, plastron, head and four limbs intact but no more rotten flesh.
“The crime scene was horrifying, most carapaces scattered at the sites had its scutes removed. Here I was at the killing field of sea turtles, feeling sad for the slaughtered turtles and disappointed with myself for not having a skill to perform necropsy or to identify the species.”
Dr James further told reporters that what had happened there was poaching.
“There’s no doubt. It’s not true what they said it was thrown there as reported in some local newspapers. In fact, one of the newspapers used the words ‘kena buang sana. Not kena buang! That is where they were poached.
“I have an eyewitness. Actually there (are) still living turtles kept in a cage in Balambangan. So during the meeting, I asked, “are you going to arrest the guy or not? If you don’t know where it is, I’ll take you there but they didn’t say anything,” Dr James, who is a UMS researcher-lecturer, said.
To a question on when the Cabinet paper is expected to be ready, he said, “sometimes next week.”