Thursday, July 15, 2010

Talang-Satang National Park, Sarawak

I was continue my sampling in Talang-Satang National Park on 26 Jun to 13 July 2010. Many people do asked me where is it ... so i just have a brief introduction on it.

Talang-Satang National Park is located near Kuching, Sarawak. The park included 4 islands of Pulau Talang-Talang Besar, Pulau Talang-Talang Kecil, Pulau Satang Besar and Pulau Satang Kecil. Sea turtles are nesting in all those islands except Pulau Satang Kecil (no sand area). The 3 islands are the sea turtle nesting area.

Pulau Talang-Talang is only open for volunteers (more info please click here) and Pulau Satang Besar is open for public but u need to pay to the landowner to enter the island (conservation fee - RM10/person). If u want to go to Pulau Talang-Talang then u need to go Sematan Jetty, if u want to go to Pulau Satang then u need to go to Telaga Air Jetty.


Pulau Talang-Talang Besar
I stayed at Pulau Talang-Talang Besar for 5 days, everyday will go out to the swallow area or coral reef area to look for sea turtles. At night time, i will also help the park rangers to take care the nesting turtles. The time I have been there is the Sea turtles nesting season, therefore there are many sea turtle came up to lay egg, they said the highest number will reach almost 100. This is the 1st time I have encountered so many turtles at 1 night, it is really very busy. 
















Pulau Satang
After that i moved to Pulau Satang Besar for 9 days. Only 2 staffs were on duty at that island, same as Talang-Talang Island, day time will go out to do my sampling, we will set net to capture turtle or snorkeling to catch it, not much turtles were spotted. The nesting sea turtles in this island also less that Talang-Talang Island, but the special of this place is, there is Olive Ridley nesting here, temporary was the only place in Malaysia where Olive Ridley can be found.





Olive Ridley nest






p/s: especial thanks to Tonny (Park Warden - my super super super senior as well)