Volunteering at Turtle Hatchery Melaka

This is what I promised.

It is my visit to Turtle Management Center, Department of Fisheries, Melaka more than a week ago. It was managed and run by WWF Melaka. It was a wonderful experience and very tiring as well. At this time of the year, volunteering seems quite silly as the nesting season was towards the end.

But...

I'm really thankful to witness the landing of two female Hawksbill at Padang Kemunting the very night I arrived. I managed to plant their eggs and note the nests too! At the hatchery itself, there were 8 boxes of hatchling emerging and all of them were assessed physically. Then, a rough number of 300 hatchlings were released into the sea at Kem Terendak (the army camp). As I'm the only volunteer at this odd time of the year, I am thrilled and excited to do all the work. Yes, all the work in just one night.

WWF's staff couldn't stop admiring my luck on the first day of my visit. Indeed, I was the lucky one. They told me that previously, some of the past volunteers did not even managed to see any turtle nesting after having been there for 1 week!!!

Work starts at roughly 9pm and ends at 6am. Boy, I was really exhausted at my first day, not accustom to the suddent change of biological clock... Wow, it's a wonder how the staffs did it consecutively every night for all the years!!

OK.
Pictures speak louder than words. So be it.

The incubation room for eggs transported from the island.

The data sheet for the assessment of each turtle hatchling. Imagine having to go through this repeatedly from the 10pm to 3am!

The boxes stacked up after the assessment of hatchling. Plenty huh?!

Inside the incubation room were the organization of boxes. Each was labelled precisely and placed carefully to minimize any movement.

The view of one of the three hatchery in a row.

A close-up view. Notice the box netting that secluded some of the nests? It prevents the soon-to-emerge hatchling from wandering around. It could be a hazard because some of them were squashed by passing vehicles on the road (this hatchery is just by the road).

This is how we note the emerging hatchling. The used-to-be compact sand layer became soft and collapsed in the middle when the hatching move underneath the sand.

This was the huge amount of hatchling for the night. The hatchling were so distracted by the light that they could not stop moving around the styrofoam box.

I can't keep them still even in photographs!

There were shades of colours on the carapace of each baby turtle.

A close-up view.

WOW!!!

So, I've shared my valuable experience here. I'm sure volunteers at Turtle Research & Rehabilitation Group in Chagar Hutang (formerly SEATRU now known as TRRG), Terengganu also went through something similar and as enjoyable as mine. Let's share.

*Sorry for the bad resolution. Blaming it on the bad cellphone-camera, definitely.

Next on Idiosyncrasies.com : Pulau Upeh.