Kota Kinabalu: Sea turtles play an important part in Sabah’s emerging Blue Economy and each is easily worth half a million ringgit alive for the State’s tourism industry, according to Sabah Marine Research Foundation Founder and Executive Director Dr Nicolas Pilcher.
He said the nett value was based on a landmark study which showed that the Turtle Islands Marine Park was worth nearly RM7 million ringgit a year.
“Think about the number of tourists that come to Sabah and want to go scuba diving to see the sea turtles. How much are they spending on hotels, food, airfares, boat rentals, dive packages?“All their expenses add up to half a million ringgit for every sea turtle in the region,” he told the 5th International Symposium and Management of Wetlands, recently.
However, he said, reluctance by the authorities to make it mandatory for trawlers to be equipped with a Turtle Exclusion Device costing only RM500 is resulting in losses of up to RM750 million for the Sabah economy.
“In Sabah, there have been incidents where sea turtles are unintentionally caught in the nets of trawlers.”In the best case scenario, they are released back into the sea alive, but the worst outcome is the tragic loss of an innocent creature’s life.
“We know that, on average, each trawler in Sabah catches one turtle per year. With around 1,500 trawlers operating in the State, this means approximately 1,500 turtles are caught annually.
“With each turtle valued at RM500,000, we’re talking about RM750 million of natural resources discarded dead at sea every year,” he said.
The device allows smaller animals like fish and shrimp into the net, but blocks larger animals such as the sea turtles, which allows it to escape and prevents them from becoming bycatch.
However, 20 years later, it is still not a legal requirement for the authorities. “As long as it’s not a legal requirement, fishermen are not willing to do install it.
"So can you imagine all the work Sabah Parks does, the resources they spend on protecting turtles, they do it so that turtles can go into the ocean just to die because of our fishing boats,” he said.
He said it is time people see the worth of these creatures beyond their display on the sides of buses, the RM20 note or on just about every single Malaysian tourism advertisement.
“They are a species that evokes all kinds of feelings among humans. And because of that, they are hugely important to Sabah’s economy,” he said.
He said in terms of social value sea turtles also play a significant role in cultures and traditions worldwide. Ecologically, green sea turtles maintain the growth of seagrass which acts as the habitat for juvenile shrimp and commercial fish. The absence of sea turtles, dugongs and other herbivorous organisms would make these habitats unsustainable.
Another species, the hawksbill turtle, feeds on sponges which are a threat to coral reefs due to their accelerated growth rate.
Without hawksbill turtles, sponges could outcompete corals which results in a loss of effectiveness of coral reefs.
