Agus Santoso devotes his time to turtles

By Bambang M.

BANTUL, Central Java (JP): Care for one's environment starts at home. This is also true for Bantul resident Agus Santoso and his family in Yogyakarta.

On certain afternoons, Agus, his wife and their daughter travel from their home in the hamlet of Sambeng in Srandakan to Pandansimo beach by motorcycle, taking three containers and another one filled with five tukik (young turtles).

When they arrive, each family member puts a young turtle in the sand, and watches while it tastes its new-found freedom.

"Bye bye, see you later," they call when the turtles finally reach the sea.

At home, Agus has three small aquariums filled with dozens of tukik. Every two days he goes to the beach to collect seawater for his aquariums.

The man not only shows concern for his turtles at home, but he is also trying to save more of the slow-moving creatures from poachers.

Turtles lay their eggs between May and September. When breeding season arrives, Agus goes to the beach regularly, and stays there from 5 p.m. until midnight.

Whenever he spots turtles' eggs, he moves them to a safe haven that he has built in the sand, and the eggs are buried as deep as 70 centimeters. After 50 days, the eggs hatch and it is then that Agus moves the young turtles to his aquariums at home. He keeps them for two months before releasing them back into the wild.

"Ideally, we release young turtles only after seven months, but we do not have sufficient room for them," said Agus, adding that he takes new young turtles every day, either directly from the beach or from fishermen.

There are at least three kinds of turtles arriving on the south beach to lay eggs: the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), penyu belimbing (Dermochelys coreacea) and penyu sisik (Eretmochelys imbricata). As endangered species, the turtles are protected by Law No.5/1999 and Decree No.7/1999 on the protection and conservation of natural resources. CITES also prohibits any trade of the turtles.

However, despite the regulations, the turtles are widely traded and their eggs collected for profit.

"In Yogyakarta, the turtles are caught after they are spotted by fishermen," said Bambang Purnomo, a member of Yogyakarta's Nature Conservation environmental group.

The idea to help save the turtles came to Agus about three years ago, when the contracting company he worked with in Jakarta went bankrupt.

He then went home and established a new business. At the same time, he also started to save turtles.

In his conservation efforts, he set up a foundation, Karya Pandansimo Lestari, which later changed to Tunas Pandansimo Lestari. Apart from working to conserve turtles, the foundation also tries to keep the south beach clean.

He has worked with Kulonprogo, Bantul and Gunung Kidul regencies to launch campaigns targeting fishermen. The campaigns urge fishermen to stop hunting the endangered turtles. As part of the campaign, Agus buys every captured turtle or its eggs. An adult turtle costs him Rp 100,000 while its eggs are sold for Rp 500 to Rp 750 each.

The campaign has also helped to reduce poaching. The number of vendors selling turtle meat is also declining.

But the same strategy has not worked on tourists or fishermen coming from other cities.

"If they see the turtles, they catch them and take the endangered animal home with them," Agus said.

There are two groups of fishermen in Pandansimo beach who help Agus to save the turtle population. They join in helping to hatch the eggs, or sell captured young turtles to Agus for Rp 3,000 each. In a way, the conservation effort has helped the fishermen earn some money.

Saving turtles is not an easy job. The recent sinking of the Kalla ship, which was carrying asphalt, in Congot Kulon Progo polluted most parts of the south beach, making the turtles reluctant to lay their eggs there. During the normal breeding season, Agus and his team might have collected thousands of turtles' eggs, but now they have only been able to collect several hundred.

As he patrols 150 kilometers of beach, Agus is helped by eight men. Three of them are coordinators and are paid Rp 550,000 a month, while others are paid Rp 400,000 each. All of them are equipped with a motorcycle, a camera and a walkie-talkie.

When breeding season arrives, Agus has to spend more of his money which he earned from his business.

"We have spent about Rp 4 million a week to buy all of the turtles caught by the fishermen," said Ratnawati, his wife.

Agus, however, hopes that an organization will help him build a small house at the beach to act as a hatchery and house the young turtles for seven months. The seven-month-old turtles would have a better chance at survival after they are released.

For Agus, there is no such thing as giving up. "I will continue to help conserve the turtles until I'm old."