It's the season for Pawikan...
The start of August officially means Pawikan Season. But no, it’s not about hunting down marine turtles with your long rifles or crossbows and displaying them as personal trophies. In fact, Pawikan season is the opposite; it is actually Turtle Conservation Season since marine turtles are considered endangered species. Five of the seven known species of marine turtles are confirmed to have considered some of the Philippines’ coastlines as migratory route and even critical habitats. They are the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), the loggerhead (Caretta caretta), the Olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea), the hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and the leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea). Most marine turtles have been hunted down, for their shell houses are beautiful decorations, and even their eggs are being poached and sold at local public markets because of their so-called medicinal benefits, according to traditional customs persistent within the country.
As the fight to preserve marine turtles begins, attentive measures are necessary and even careful and constant study. Continuous research by biologists and gathering of information will greatly help in the advocacy.
INFORMING THE COMMUNITY
The coastal barangays of Pundakit and San Miguel in San Antonio, Zambales are natural marine turtle habitat, including the whole coastline of Zambales province. But San Antonio has plenty of secluded coves in Agusuhin point, and including beaches of Capones and Camara Islands, they are perfect nesting grounds for marine turtles since scarce population exist in these locations, which are hard to reach areas because there is no network of roads in these places; they can be only reached by boat. Unfortunately, sometimes, fishermen act as poachers, one of the predators that are slowly endangering the lives of turtles into extinction.
Together with Environmental Protection of Asia Foundation, DENR, and local officials, we set foot to both barangays hoping to inform, introduce, and help them in the saving marine turtles. The community was eager to learn facts about turtles and was amazed because of the misperceptions about these animal creatures. Freshly laid eggs were openly pilfered and sold to the public market as alternative medicine to asthma symptoms, as was widely believed by locals through the years. The proper forum has encouraged most folks not to get and eat turtle eggs, avoid harming turtles, and inform their local barangay officials if ever they see one. Also, through the efforts of barangay leaders, people were positively persuaded to care not only the turtles but the whole environment as a whole. Fisher folks and even young kids have changed their attitude towards their habitat which they share with one of the most important creatures that helps in maintaining balance to the ecological system which is on the brink of being extinct in the future, if abuses were not prevented.
PATROLLING THE BEACH
Saving marine turtles is a difficult task. Marine turtles only come ashore when laying eggs. They stay most of their life at the sea, and some contacts are when they are caught in between fishermen’s nest, which is life threatening to most of them. One activity to do is to patrol the beach at night, particularly during high tides and/or when the moon is full, looking for turtles laying their eggs, hopefully before any opportunistic poacher could claim them. One theory about turtles is that they come back to the exact location where they were born to lay eggs of their future hatchlings. This hasn’t been proven but there are references and materials that can likely substantiate this claim. So, a beach that has previous turtle hatchings will also have the possibility of being a future hatching site.
Over a period of more than a month, our group was unlucky to see actual turtle hatchings. We only settled for finding a hatching site in an open beach. This continues the task of preserving marine turtles, even the baby ones. Careful transfer of the eggs into a more secure place was considered so that those eggs, the future of their endangered generation, would survive. With the help of the community, we had a place in the beach that was transformed into a hatchery for majority of the eggs that will be gathered, whether by our group or those who are willing to help. All eggs found from hatching sites around various places are being taken from their original hatching site carefully, avoiding rotation of each egg as it is being transferred, so as not to shake the embryo inside which could result in mortality. Placed on a basin or any spacious pail or container with damp sand, it is transferred to the hatchery site and buried under the sand with the same care avoiding shaking each egg. To be naturally incubated for a certain period, the hatchery is maintained by local volunteers for safety from known turtle predators, including ants and even sea water. Data are gathered from the eggs and even the turtle that laid them by the group who had witnessed a turtle’s actual laying the eggs. The turtle is measured and checked for tags, and if there are no metal tags on the flippers or any of them, they are tagged and recorded by experts for monitoring.
A PERIOD OF WAITING
Depending on the specie of the turtle, the eggs are incubated for certain days, by natural light of the sun and heat from the sand. The most common specie in Zambales, the olive ridley’s eggs, is hatched for at least 45 days. On the 4oth day, the hatchery is closely monitored for some digging activities – baby turtles dig their way up to the surface when they are hatched. Every live hatchling will try to go to the surface, so proper procedures are then undertaken to collect data like number of baby turtles that are alive compared to the number of turtle eggs, checking for deformities, spoiled eggs and even dead hatchlings. And after collecting data, the baby turtles are then sent off to the sea, to come back to lay eggs probably after 50 years and so. Depending on the conditions of the hatchlings, they can be kept until their food sap (a small container of food attached to each baby turtle’s belly, wherever that is) are almost empty.
A program was added when the baby turtles are being sent to the sea. Selected students of Pundaquit Elementary School were each asked to “adopt” a baby hatchling, allowing the student to name their baby turtles, and then encouraging the turtles to slowly crawl to the sea. Even though it was ceremonially insignificant, it was a very moving scene, and it helped create awareness between the little children about the environment and its surroundings. One child was overheard promising that he will stop his parents, relative, or any neighbor from eating or selling turtle eggs if ever he heard or catch them doing so. One was trying to cheer his turtle, hoping to see it back again in maybe a couple of decades or so, probably to introduce his adopted turtle to his son in the future, the succeeding generation of caretakers. And even though only one percent of the baby hatchlings will survive on the sea, there is still a glimmer of hope and determination, as they swim to their fate, hoping to come back to the very same beach to lay eggs.
THE HORIZON AHEAD
According to data, marine turtles help control the balance of cycle of the marine ecosystem. The less turtles out on the sea, the more chance marine life would be endangered. There would be less small fishes, the food chain of bigger fishes. Other fishes will also become extinct, so coastal towns and even other people depending on marine life as staple food will experience scarcity of fishes and sea foods in the future. Even those surviving one percent are vital to promote a balanced marine ecosystem. The only tool we have is to inform the people who are confused and illiterate on the subject of conserving our planet in particular. At present, majority of the population in San Antonio, Zambales had changed their gastronomical viewpoint on pawikans. They don’t see them as food anymore. Instead they look at them as bringer of foods.
With their beaches clean and sparsely populated, the town has shifted from poaching turtle eggs into promoting its natural beaches. Pundakit beach is also the gateway to the famous Capones Lighthouse in Capones Island, white beaches in Camara Island, Anawangin, Nagsasa, Talisain, and Aganaem coves, all within an hour’s ride by boat. Those places are also marine turtle habitats that tourists and campers might probably be surprised if there is a turtle near their pitched tent in the middle of the night.
Turtle hatching season ends in February, but up until March there still might be baby turtles to be released from the hatchery. When released, the turtle spends all of its life in the sea, never looking back to the place they were born. Even when the hatchlings are released, whether they will survive the cruel world they are living in, we are not sure.
As the sun sets while releasing the last of the baby turtles in each of our hands, and as they swim towards the horizon as we wait for the next season to approach, we pray and hope for the survival of these vital marine creatures until they come back to lay their eggs, completing their circle of life.
Sana ikaw nlng pumalit kay Atienza sa DENR...
naalala ko nun may nila lobby kaming project hinihintay namin si Mike Defensor... feeling pogi sa kanyang amerikana hahaha...
tsaka pano mo nalaman nasa pic ako? andami ko ngang pic na may hawak na baby turtle kaso wala akong kopya... meron pa kming ginawang docu ng DENR ewan ko lang kung dinilete yung eksena ko dun hahaha...
hindi pa ko nakakita/nakahawak nyan personally..
bakit may dalang plais..ay tama ba sfelling?? (pliers) yung mama?
tsalamat sa info! i'll vote for you as DENR sec! :p
Pakintabin ang kalikasan!!! Plorwarks para sa DENR!!!