This
is one of our official rally stops and we have five days allocated
with permission from the head of Sabah tourism to anchor, snorkel and
visit the islands in the park – not an
offer
made very often. We went ashore this morning to register with the
park ranger as we were asked to do. He found the memo advising of
the fleet's arrival and made us most welcome. This is an intensive
conservation programme for green and hawksbill turtles which have
been coming to the beaches on this small island for ever.
Each
night the turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. The eggs are
collected by the rangers and moved to a vermin proof, human proof,
turtle proof hatchery. When a female comes ashore and begins digging
her egg pit she may be unearthing a previous clutch, hence turtle
proof. When these eggs hatch on a night two months later the
youngsters are collected and released under cover of darkness. The
statistic of survival to mature adult is 1 in 1000.
The
sanctuary is self supporting through it's visitor centre. Guests
arrive in the morning, spend the day perhaps on the beach and at
night help to release the hatchings and then watch the new eggs being
laid. The rally boats are to be invited ashore for the evening on
Monday. Sazli, Tengku Adlin, head of tourism and a journalist will
be here then.
Because
there are tourists and because there is currently a problem with
invading Filipino pirates who are looking for high value hostages
there are 30 armed police stationed on the island with machine gun
dug outs concealed under the trees. The dug out we visited had a
perfect view of Jackster and two friendly officers. Keen to
demonstrate their readiness David persuaded one to allow him to try
on an armoured vest and helmet. The machine gun (fortunately)
remained off limits to foreign civilians.
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