LOCAL NEWS! Right way to save turtles? Call the cops!

DJ Rod Monteiro finds hatchlings at East Coast Park. He is unable to get help from some animal groups. 21 out of 26 hatchlings later saved by animal activists, passers-by
Teh Jen Lee, The New Paper 17 Sep 09;

THEY are an endangered species, but the happy event of their hatching at East Coast Park almost ended in complete tragedy. At least five hawksbill turtles died on our shores yesterday morning.

Another 21 could have suffered the same fate if not for Radio 91.3FM deejay Rod Monteiro, 42, and a group of animal lovers. But what irked Mr Monteiro in his attempt to save the hatchlings is the runaround he was given when he tried calling for help.

He was jogging at East Coast Park near the National Service Resort and Country Club at 7am when he spotted a turtle hatchling on the jogging track.

Unusually, it was heading inland, and was more than 100m away from the shore. When Mr Monteiro looked around, he saw two others that had been run over on the cycling track and killed.

'I was sad,' said Mr Monteiro, who co-hosts The Married Men show. 'I (thought) that turtles are endangered.'

He eventually found 12 hatchlings and released 11 of them into the sea. He kept one in case Underwater World Singapore (UWS) or some scientific institution wanted them for research.

But when he called UWS, he was surprised that the assistant curator did not seem to share his excitement about the turtles.

He said: 'I was just told to release the ones I had found and that they were probably hawksbill turtles. From the way he spoke, it was as if the species was not endangered. When I checked online later, I confirmed that it was. Everywhere in the world, people are trying to save these turtles. Why are they taking it so lightly?'

All seven species of marine turtles are endangered.

Mr Monteiro next called the Nature Society Singapore (NSS) office. He was told to call the National University of Singapore's Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) - and was in turn told that RMBR couldn't help. The reason: They can't keep live specimens.

No one told Mr Monteiro that he should have called the police (999) in the first place.

That is the little-known standard operating procedure (SOP) jointly developed with the National Parks Board (NParks) by the Year of the Turtle 2006 Singapore committee.

This SOP states that the public should call the police whenever they see a marine turtle.

The police would immediately alert NParks, said committee chairman, Associate Professor C H Diong, of the Natural Sciences and Science Education department in the National Institute of Education.

The NParks officer-in-charge would go to the site - day or night - with a turtle rescue kit, which includes cordon tape and a pail.

Prof Diong said: 'If there are eggs found, the police will stand guard to prevent theft.

'NParks will contact me or another point person in NUS to assess if the eggs need to be relocated, which would be the case if they can be easily trampled...

'If, during the night, hatchlings are attracted to light sources and they are found heading landward instead of seaward, they may fall into drains or go into people's houses.

'In that case, NParks will collect them, count them and release them.'

Urgency

Eventually, Mrs Teresa Teo Guttensohn, the co-founder of Cicada Tree Eco-place, an environmental education group, was informed by NSS about the turtles.

She called Mr Monteiro at 10am.

He said: 'She was going to rush down and look for more hatchlings.

'There was an urgency in her voice. That was what I was looking for.'

About 15 people, including cyclists, passers-by and representatives from the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) helped Mrs Guttensohn look for hatchlings.

Mrs Guttensohn, 46, who drove to the site from her home in Bukit Panjang, said: 'When I got the call about the turtles, I was actually going to the doctor because I have a sports injury.'

Measuring only about 5cm across, the hatchlings were hard to spot as they looked like dried leaves. But after about four hours, the group managed to find 26 hatchlings.

Five died from the heat or from being run over. The rest of the turtles were released at 12.30pm in the presence of NParks staff.

Mr Monteiro was heartened by their efforts. He said: 'I'm going to talk about this incident on air. The people I called should have known where to direct me. It's their job to know about wildlife in Singapore. If someone else found the turtles and let the matter go after the first call, all those turtles found by the rescuers would have died.'

A spokesman for UWS said they are aware of the arrangement to call the police. She said: 'Since the turtles were found near the sea, releasing them immediately may be a more expedient solution than waiting for the appropriate personnel to travel to the site.'

Prof Diong, who has been doing turtle research since the 1990s, said he will look into how the key partners of the Year of the Turtle committee, which includes UWS, RMBR and NSS, can be reminded of the SOP.

First sighting in 3 years

Hawksbill turtles are the only species of marine turtles that have been sighted in Singapore. Mr Monteiro's find is the first reported sighting in three years. There were no sightings in the whole of 2007 and 2008.