The Electric New Paper :
Right way to save turtles? Call cops
*By Teh Jen Lee 17 September 2009
*
*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

**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.
*
---
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.

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