Share/Bookmark

Turtle Watching at Monica Bay in Pantai Telok Mak Nik, Kamaman

In 1960s  Turtle Watching  at Rantau Abang, Terengganu become world famous after several international magazine wrote about the abundance of sea turtle found landing at the beach  here to lay their egg. It became a sensation later as more and more people coming to the place ans was soon become was well-known tourist attraction around the world. Two decade later in the 80's the number of turtles landed there were decreasing rapidly because of  man made activities through shipping and fishing activities around the world and a few year later tourist complete stop coming to the area anymore.

There are still several place for visiter to find sea turtle landing activities in Terengganu.

Icluding a beach where Kemaman Tourist Guide operate a turtle watching activities in the area and visiting  the local Sea Turtle Hatchery at Kemaman.

Bellow are extracted taken from Kemamamguide.com

The Beach also know as Monica Bay, in Geliga Terengganu, provides one of the great attractions in Kemaman.  I believed the turtles landed at new area which is Monica Bay, Geliga.
























~Hatchery Area~



~Green Turtle in the House~
Location:





Monica Bay, Geliga in Kemaman District
Fact :

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines (the crown group of the superorder Chelonia), characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield.”Turtle” may either refer to the Testudines as a whole, or to particular Testudines which make up aform taxon that is not monophyletic.




The order Testudines includes both extant (living) and extinct species. The earliest known turtles date from 215 million years ago, making turtles one of the oldest reptile groups and a more ancient group than lizards, snakes and crocodiles. Of the many species alive today, some are highlyendangered.




Like other reptiles, turtles are ectotherms—their internal temperature varies according to the ambient environment, commonly called cold-blooded. However, leatherback sea turtles have noticeably higher body temperature than surrounding water because of their high metabolic rate.




Like other amniotes (reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals), they breathe air and do not lay eggs underwater, although many species live in or around water. The largest turtles are aquatic.(Taken from Wikipedia)
Facilities:



~Baby Turtle “flying” on my hand… ~

A shed will be provided to tourist while waiting for the turtle.

Tourist will just need to make early booking and what we will do is we will call the tourist at night once the turtles landing. Turtle nesting process requires about 3 hours after landing on the beach. Only qualified nature guides are allowed to enter the turtle nesting area in order to control the number of tourists who come every night, to make it not too crowded. Too many tourists will attract the turtles attention of our presence and will stop looking for spawning areas and will lead them back to the sea.


Tourists are advised to check-in hotels around Cherating or Kemaman area if interested to watch the turtles because tourists do not need to wait for the turtles at the beach. Turtle egg collectors or “Rangers” that recognized and authorised by the department of fisheries (Jabatan Perikanan) are allowed and they will tell the nature guides if there is a turtle landing and nature guide will call the tourist to come to the beach to see the turtle. This procedure is to avoid too many visitors to come to the beach at one time and will disturb the turtle and its habitat.
Activities :

Tourist can see the turtle only after the turtle laying eggs process finished which means after the turtle dig a hole and began laying eggs. And this process will take about half an hour. Turtle will cover the hole after the turtle nesting process and getting ready to return to the sea. We will accompany the turtles to the edge of the water and waved goodbye to the turtle. However, visitors are prohibited to stand in front of the turtle while it crawls to the sea.

You will be lucky if there are eggs that hatched on the day as you can release hatchlings into the sea from a distance of 10 meters from the edge of the water. This is because the hatchlings require adequate strength before it entered the water. Hatchlings have the energy for 7 days for them to seek refuge in the sea. But in fact, only one baby turtle will survive in 1000 hatchlings that hatch because it has too many enemies such as birds, big fish, fishing net and etc.

If the nature guide did not call tourists to come to the beach before 12 midnight, this means that no turtles have landed on that night.
Want to know more information? Please do come to Kemaman, Terengganu to watch the turtle with authorised local nature guide….


Turtle Watching Session :



~Briefing time…~



~Watch turtles laying eggs process… ~



~Sand Bathing~








~Accompanying the turtle back to sea…~



~Photo session with the baby turtle … (Their mothers so cute, right?? )~
Hatchlings release Session – Must not Miss!!



>Get Set……. <







"Goooo…….. Gooooooooo………"



"I am number one.. " " I am number one.."



**** I Winn!!!!……. ****

How to Get There :




By Car


Tour guide will call you if there any signs of turtle’s landing and will inform the check-point to meet. This is because we do not know where the turtles lay their eggs at that night you make booking.

After that, your tour guide will take you to the location where the turtles lay their eggs, but tourists are not allowed to go near to the turtle before getting the signal from the tour guide.


__________________________________________________________________

MOST IMPORTANT

Recommendation if you are in Kemaman between feb - September

Dont forget to visit Kampung Ibok's Firefly Sanctuary for Fireflies watching activities





Run by kemamanguide.com

The Sungai Yak Yah Firefly Sanctuary is the biggest fire sanctuary in Malaysia. Which is located about half an hour from the town of Chukai in Kemaman. The Yak Yah river is also the home to the biggest firefly colonies found in Malaysia.

The appreciation activities can be done all around the year except from the month of October to January and the best time to go here for firefly appreciation activities is from July to September, which is the mating season for the firefly.









0 comments:

Share/Bookmark
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...