Green turtles staying away from W. Java's Citirem coast
Text and Photos by Bambang Parlupi
CITIREM, West Java (JP): Green turtles have traditionally laid their eggs on Citirem, a 1.1 kilometer stretch of coastline in the Cikepuh nature reserve in Sukabumi, West Java.
But you would never know it if you visited the reserve facing the Indonesian Ocean in recent months -- green turtles (chelonia mydas) are nowhere to be found.
"In January, it has been very difficult to find any green turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs," said the head of the Green Turtle Chelonia, Firmansyah.
Since monitoring began in 1997, the number of green turtles visiting the site has been small but consistent, with 39 turtles laying 646 eggs in 1997 and 122 animals laying 3,945 eggs the following year.
There was a sharp increase in 1999 as 429 turtles were monitored, laying 18,508 eggs. Of the latter number, 5,680 eggs successfully hatched.
In 2000, however, there was a drastic decline in the numbers; by August, only 92 turtles were recorded along the whole stretch of coastline in the area.
Worse still, all 1,960 eggs laid were plundered by locals, according to the conservation subsection office for Cianjur, Sukabumi and Bogor.
"Up to the middle of this month, the monitoring team has yet to find one turtle on the beach," said Firmansyah, a student in the School of Biology at Nasional University in Jakarta. "Usually from one to seven of the animals would arrive on the beach each night."
The monitoring team has identified several reasons for the decline, but say the most significant is the unchecked illegal logging in the area. The loggers are disturbing the habitat and the turtles as they arrive on the beach.
Another disturbance is caused by the growth in night fishing in the area. Turtles are uneasy around human activities and will return to the sea if they feel disturbed.
Reserve
The 8, 127.5 hectares of Cikepuh, which is named after the plant Kepuh (sterculia foetida), were officially designated a reserve on Oct. 20, 1973.
Apart from Citirem, there are six other sites in the area where the turtles are known to lay their eggs. The female turtles scramble ashore, and spend hours using their flippers to dig a hole to lay the eggs. It takes from 50 days to 70 days for the eggs to hatch.
In its effort to assist the hatching of the eggs, the monitoring group constructed a seminatural nesting site, consisting of two hollows, one for the eggs and the other for the newly hatched turtles.
But the site is no guard against the rampant plundering of the nests by some of the locals from the area. The limited number of wardens in the park have been unable to check the practice.
This is despite the fact that the green turtle is protected under national and international laws as an endangered species.
Like the five other of the six marine turtles found in Indonesian seas, the green turtle is protected under the 1999 government decree on protection of flora and fauna. Punishment for illegal exploitation of the animals is contained in a 1990 decree on the conservation of the ecosystem.
The green turtle is also classified as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Despite its protection on paper, the turtle's population is believed to be declining fast throughout its range due to human predation and marine pollution.
Firmansyah and others fear that time may be running out to save the animal, with biological and environmental factors stacked against it. The animal takes 30 years to reach reproductive maturity, and only one of the 1,000 hatched eggs reaches adulthood.
For the time being, the long wait goes on for the green turtles to return to Citarem beach.