Green turtles, saved from the slaughterhouse, go back to sea
Green turtles, saved from the slaughterhouse, go back to sea
By I Wayan Juniartha
DENPASAR, Bali (JP): He was huge, the biggest and probably the
oldest male green turtle (Chelonia mydas) in the group
He slowly lifted his head and sniffed the salty ocean breeze
of Sanur beach. His body, exhausted by many days without food and
water, not to mention the trauma of watching his kin being
slaughtered around him, seemed rejuvenated by the splashing of
waves on his back.
"They definitely look happier than yesterday, when they were
still kept in the holding pens of the turtle slaughterhouse,"
Bali Police Special Crimes unit Adjutant Senior Commissioner Gede
Artawan said on Wednesday morning.
"They only moved a little then, but now, at the sight of the
wide blue ocean, all of sudden they are moving a lot, wriggling,
lifting their heads, moving their limbs. They must be aware of
the fact that they are going to be free again."
He was standing a few meters from dozens of riot police
officers, all of them barefooted, and not one of them carrying
rattan sticks, tear-gas canisters or police shields. Instead,
they were busy hauling 126 turtles from police trucks into two
traditional jukung boats.
Several minutes later, in the middle of the ocean, those
officers cut the plastic ropes that had bound the turtles for
many days, and let them plunge into the ocean. The turtles swam
in slow movements, as if relishing the newly regained freedom,
before diving deep into the sea.
The turtles were confiscated a day earlier in a police raid at
a turtle slaughterhouse some 50 meters west of the Ngurah Rai
Highway on the eastern outskirts of Denpasar city. The
slaughterhouse, in operation for almost 30 years, belonged to
turtle meat vendor I Made Kodi, 67, and was managed by his nephew
I Wayan Widnyana.
In the house the officers found some 130 turtles kept in
squalor in two holding pens. One of the holding pens was equipped
with three elevated concrete structures, where an average of two
turtles was butchered every day. Open squares pit, full of turtle
bones, were next to them.
"I bought the turtles, at prices ranging from Rp 200,000 to Rp
350,000, from poachers in Tanjung Benoa village," Kodi said
during the raid. "The turtle meat is cooked into various
traditional Balinese delicacies. A complete portion of the
delicacies sells for about around Rp 30,000 each, and we can make
30 complete portions out of a single turtle."
A spacious kitchen was situated next to the main house, with
three women busy boiling ingredients and spices in two huge
aluminum pots that were mounted on a big burning hearth.
After a brief argument, Kodi and his workers let the
officers seize all the turtles, moved them into trucks and
transported them to Bali Police Headquarters. Three turtles later
died in police custody, while one is being kept as state'
evidence.
"The raid of the slaughterhouse and the release of the
confiscated turtles is our way to show our commitment in
enforcing Law No. 5 1990, and Government Decree No. 7 1999 on
Natural Resources Protection and Conservation. Both the law and
the decree stipulate that poaching, trading and slaughtering of
turtles are illegal," Gede Artawan said.
Tarnished image
The turtle industry has long tarnished Bali's image abroad.
The local government and law enforcement agents have essentially
turned a blind eye to exploitation of the animal, fearing that
enforcing the law might cause a backlash from the hundreds of
turtle poachers and dealers.
Turtle dealers have for years justified the island's high
turtle consumption rate -- sometimes reaching more than 20,000
turtles per year -- by claiming that turtle meat was
traditionally part of religious rituals and traditional
festivals. Bali-based NGOs, most notably the World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF) Wallacea Bioregion, with the help of few Hindu high
priests, launched campaigns refuting the argument.
"Hindu religious rituals, by and large, only need 500 turtles
per year. The fact is most of the turtles are slaughtered only to
feed Balinese's need for turtle-based traditional delicacies,
served at traditional parties," high priest Ida Pedanda Gde
Ngurah Kaleran said.
And with growing support from local NGOs and the Hindu
clerical council of Parisada, and bolstered by increasing
international pressure -- including the threat of a tourist
boycott -- the Bali Administration and Bali Police have no choice
but to face up to the poachers.
"We highly appreciate the police and government's efforts in
enforcing the law. But we should not save the turtles and at the
same time neglect the well-being of our people. We have to
immediately find alternatives jobs or income source for all these
poachers, dealers, slaughterers and meat vendors," WWF Wallacea
Bioregion Turtle Campaign leader Windia Adnyana said.
Initial efforts have been made by WWF Wallacea Bioregion to
approach local tourism industry's executives in implementing
turtle-based ecotourism. Meanwhile, the people of Tanjung Benoa,
a village some 30 kilometers south of here, where hundreds of
turtle poachers reside, have also come up with a plan to build a
turtle park and hatchery.
"These options should be wisely studied by the government as
alternatives solutions to the current infamous turtle industry,"
Adnyana said.
A recent survey by Institute for Information and Development
Studies shows the turtle industry is the main source of income
for at least 300 households in Tanjung Benoa alone. An earlier
survey by Malang-based NGO Animal Conservation for Life (KSBK)
showed that in Denpasar and Badung regencies there were 11 big
slaughterhouses and 32 turtle meat vendors.
"Finding alternative income sources for poachers, dealers, and
vendors, is, in my humble opinion, one of the most critical
factors in our struggle to protect and conserve the turtles,"
Windia Adnyana said.
For I Made Kodi it was a matter of losing Rp 50 million in
revenue per month, and a problem of finding new jobs for each of
his 30 workers, most of them his close relatives.