Turtle watching at Turtle Islands

Turtle watching

at Turtle Islands

By Franklin p. Gumapon

TURTLE ISLANDS, Tawi-Tawi – Joining a group of personnel from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-9 brought us to this nesting ground of sea turtles at the southern tip of Philippine Archipelago last Sept. 5-10.

Our journey started with a short briefing at the La Viña Hotel in Zamboanga City to apprise us of the specific itinerary to Bongao, the capital of Tawi-Tawi Province, and to this municipality, which is composed of six islands, namely, Taganak, Baguan, Great Bakkungan, Langaan, Lihiman and Boan. 

From that briefing we learned that Baguan Island is a strict protection zone where no one is allowed to establish his abode; it is the place where the most number of turtles are nesting. 

Mr. Cidur Julsadjiri of DENR-9’s Protected Area and Wildlife Division (PAWD), who presided over the meeting, said a navy boat would take the group from Bongao to the Turtle Islands and back.

We arrived at Sanga-Sanga Airport at 7:15 a.m. of Sept. 5, fetched by an easy ride to Bongao Port where the navy boat, Philippine Ship 19 (BRP-Miguel Malvar) led by Commanding Officer Jeff S. Nadogo, was waiting. The boat left Bongao Port at 1p.m. to start a 16-hour voyage to Taganak Island where the seat of government of the Turtle Islands municipality is based. 

The boat sailed afloat the rough seas, negotiating the giant waves. In the middle of the sea, at around 1:20 a.m. of Sept. 6, a boisterous wind suddenly came, waking up all those lying on the boat’s steel floor to warn of a coming rain. A few minutes later, raindrops started falling ensued by a downpour. My colleagues and I scampered to the boat’s mess hall, carrying our bags, laptops and cameras to avoid getting soaked in the rain. 

At around 7a.m. of Sept. 6 we finally reached Taganak Island and Mayor Mibaral M. Tang met us at the Municipal Guest House, which is situated along the beach where the turtles lay their eggs each night.

Taganak Island is one of the protected areas covered under Presidential Proclamation 171 issued by former President Joseph Estrada on Aug. 26, 1999. It allows scientific research and monitoring in the area but prohibits turtle egg collection, destructive fishing methods, killing and/or gathering of protected wildlife, and illegal or unregulated commercial fishing.

Protected Area Superintendent Minda J. Barullan told us that the strict protection zone covers 242,697 hectares with a land portion of 318 hectares.

Barullan said the data on nesting incidence in the protected area showed that 7,465 turtles nested in 2008, 10,231 in 2009, 14,035 in 2010, 20,274 in 2011, 21,703 in 2012, and 17,290 in 2013. “The number of turtles nesting in 2013 went down due to poaching and illegal fishing,” she reported.

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia Mydas) and Hawskbill Turtle (Eretemochelys Imbricata) are the two kinds of sea turtles endemic in the area, said Kester Yu, executive director of the Turtle Conservation Society of the Philippines (TCSP), a non-government organization doing research in Turtle Islands. Yu and some researchers of the Philippine Center for Terrestrial and aquatic Research  (PCTAR) have joined the voyage.

Yu also disclosed that there are seven species of sea turtles all over the world; five are seen in the Philippines and two of these are found in Turtle Islands.

Though tired and weary from a long trip, we endeavored to stay awake from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. to watch female turtles dragging with their flippers up from the seas to the shorelines to nest. On that night we saw three female turtles lay eggs under Agoho and Talisay trees, just a few meters from where we were billeted. (091214)