Turtles struggle to lay eggs on remaining nesting beach
Turtles struggle to lay eggs on remaining nesting beach
Text and photos by Mulkan Salmona
Pangumbahan, West Java (JP): Soft sand and towering waves mark
the beautiful beach of Pangumbahan in southern West Java, but on
New Year's Eve it was bleak and unattractive. However, the crowds
visiting the site in the Gunung Batu subdistrict of the Sukabumi
regency, were obviously expecting something.
Chatting on the mats they had laid along the beach, this was a
different crowd from the usual scientific-looking cluster of
researchers and students.
They were mostly domestic tourists, but there were also those
on business, the turtle egg business. Dozens of large sea
turtles, instead of only eight at other times, pick this night at
the end of every year to slowly crawl out of the sea and lay
their eggs along the three kilometer beach. Pangumbahan,
explained an expert, J.P.Schulz, is one of a few remaining major
green sea turtle nesting beaches on Java.
Unfriendly mosquitoes pestered the sleepy crowd which was
growing anxious at 11 p.m. Then, a roundish shadow crawled up the
beach ever so slowly. Eventually the big green turtle stopped
near a tree and started digging.
"Sometimes they don't lay their eggs straight away, but move
to a second or third hole to fool their enemies," divulged
Tatang, a field employee of a private firm permitted to collect
turtle eggs along the beach. He has spent three years looking out
for the turtles.
Turtles need a long time to nest, says a marine information
and resources officer of the local branch of the World Wide Fund
for Nature, R.R.F. Troenoatmodjo.
"They lay over 100 eggs in one nest," he said.
"Listen to their heaving and gasping," he requested, "after
their long plodding journey from the sea."
The female turtles looked as if they were crying, but
Troenatmodjo said it is nature's way of protecting the turtles'
eyes from sea water.
Tatang requested onlookers to sit still while he quietly
sneaked up to the beast. The animal moved again and slithered
towards another part of the beach, stopped and began digging
again.
He beckoned to onlookers to get a closer look and flickered
his flashlight towards it for a fraction of a second.
We continued to observe the turtle by only the light of the
moon and stars. We could see that she had laid many eggs before
covering the hole to resume her tedious shuffle back to the
Indian Ocean.
But suddenly flashlights turned on her and dozens of cameras
flashed endlessly. Some of the thoughtless onlookers even stood
in her way and, ignoring prior warnings, climbed onto the
struggling turtle's back as if it were a public bus. All over the
beach the scene repeated itself. Visitors kicking, pushing and
sitting on the turtles, as if the two hour ordeal of laying eggs
was not enough trauma for the majestic sea creatures.
Tatang shooed some of them away and the turtle managed to
continue her journey like an amphibian tank. She suddenly slipped
into the surf and headed out to sea, oblivious to how few of her
hatchlings would follow her.
"It's alright to crowd here, as long as no one shines a light
or make a noise," said Tatang, rather fruitlessly.
"If the turtles are disturbed they won't hatch and we'll
suffer a great loss," the employee of CV Daya Bakti said.
He and other licensed people guard the coast from groups
slipping onto the beach instead of through their gate.
"Everyone who enters through our gate is first briefed about
turtle watching," said Tatang, on guard at one of six posts. The
briefing consists of reading a typed card by the light of a
hurricane lamp.
Pangumbahan, derived from the Sundanese word 'kumbah', means a
washing place, and is said to refer to the site where people wash
turtle eggs from the sand. The beach is bordered by the
Cikangkung river in the north and the Indian Ocean in the south.
The river Cipanarikan is on its east side while Cibuaya beach
marks its western limit.
Besides green turtles (chelonia mydas), hawksbills
(eretmochelys imbricata, locally known as 'penyu sisik' ) and
leatherbacks (dermochelys coriacea, locally known as 'penyu
belimbing') also nest along the coast.
Locals have been collecting turtle's eggs for over 30 years.
Reports from the West Java provincial fishery office note an
annual harvest of 2.5 million eggs in the 1950s and 1.25 million
in 1964.
Ten years later, the harvest was cut to 509,000 eggs; and the
number has kept decreasing. Observers say uncontrolled gathering
of the eggs has caused a drop in the population of these ancient
mariners worldwide.
In 1981 the regional administration of Sukabumi took limited
action and restricted egg hunting to licensed private parties,
which is now CV Daya Bakti. Like other firms before it, all
reportedly owned by the same Sukabumi-based businessman called
Pak Adang by locals, this company is obliged to pay a contract
fee to the regency and use part of its haul to breed turtles to
preserve the population. The eggs sell for Rp 500 to Rp 600 each.