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Year: 2000
Editor: Nicolas Pilcher and Ghazally Ismail
Publisher: ASEAN ACADEMIC PRESS. UK.
ISBN: 1-901919-22-6
Pages: 361 pages
Price: US$80
To order, contact: Manager, Research and Services Division, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia Fax ++ 60 82 671903
Email: azuraidah@mailhost.unimas.my

“REPRESENTATIVES, concerned scientists and participants from the countries of the Indo-Pacific and Indian ocean regions, including Southeast Asian member nations, having met at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia from July 15 – 17, 1999 to participate in the 2nd ASEAN Symposium and Workshop on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation;
ACKNOWLEDGE that:
Six of the worlds seven sea turtles inhabit the waters of the Indian ocean and Indo-Pacific ...
Marine turtles of the Indo-Pacific and Indian ocean region are a shared resource with cultural, ecological and economic value; ...”

This excerpt of the ‘Sabah Declaration’, a resolution passed at the 2nd ASEAN Symposium, represents an overwhelming need in the world of conservation, and an important direction that sea turtle conservationists have taken. The need for regional cooperation and action is especially true of migratory species like sea turtles which are likely to be shared resources between many countries. This has already been reflected in the form of regional treaties and meetings and the formation of regional associations. Despite the importance of the Asian region for marine turtles, regional meetings are a fairly recent phenomenon. The second ASEAN meeting on sea turtle conservation, held from July 17 – 19, 1999 in Sabah, Malaysia, with 150 local and international participants including scientists, managers and other conservationists, provided further impetus the move towards regional cooperation and consolidated available information on various aspects of sea turtle biology and conservation in Asia. This volume is a collection of papers presented at this meeting.

Notably, the book begins with the Sabah Declaration, and also includes the text of two resolutions on turtle conservation in Orissa and on the reefs and islands of the Spratly Archipelago. The first section of the book deals with the conservation and management of turtles, which includes accounts of programs in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. It also has an excellent review of the effect of artificial lighting and the recovery of sea turtles. This is a particularly relevant issue in Asia, as urbanization and coastal development is fast creating major beach lighting problems. However, given the other pressures on sea turtles, and given the political and social pressure in favour of development in the region, this has not been given adequate importance or attention. If the political leaders in the region could heed the warnings of the west and learn from the mistakes, the problems of beach lighting can perhaps be preempted and the extent of damage vastly reduced.

The second section includes papers on nesting and foraging populations, and reviews the status and declines of turtles in India, Indonesia, Australia and other areas. The third section, “Beyond the beach” represents the theme of the symposium. There are excellent scientific papers here, including both reviews as well as research. Jeanette Wyneken’s review of sea hatchling orientation and navigation and Samuel Sadove’s account of leatherback physiology are comprehensive accounts of these fascinating facets of turtle biology. Jeanne Mortimer’s summary of sea turtle conservation in the Seychelles including satellite telemetry, molecular genetics and conventional field research demonstrates how a combination of techniques serves to provide better insights into the lives of sea turtles, and can be used to frame management strategies. Two studies on nearshore hatchling predation deal with an issue that is uppermost in the minds of many turtle biologists, but few studies have addressed thus far.

This is followed by a section on turtle research on nesting beaches. Since the beginning of sea turtle biology, nesting beaches have been the focus of most studies, simply because they were the easiest phase of the animal’s life to study. However, one aspect that has recently gained currency recently, simply with the advent of technologies such as satellite imagery and GIS, is the characterisation and dynamics of the geomorphology of beaches. Prusty et al. present an account of the mass nesting beaches in Orissa which have been drastically altered in the past 10 years. This is particularly relevant in the context of species like ridleys that nest near river mouths on highly dynamic sand bars and spits. Amarasooriya provides a system of classification of nesting beaches in Sri Lanka, which addresses an important issue in conservation today, namely prioritization.

The range of research and conservation tools that are used for the management of sea turtle populations. On one hand, recent research techniques such as molecular genetics, can provide insights into the biology of these species, which help us frame strategies for conservation. On the other hand, international agreements and treaties are powerful political and legal instruments which can force attention and focus on the conservation of endangered species and populations. There are papers that cover both these areas, and a paper on coordinated planning for sea turtle recovery in Australia, which reflects the general opinion that an integrated approach is required for any sustainable solution to sea turtle conservation.

All turtle biologists talk about Turtle Excluder Devices, and all turtle conservationists advocate them, but few have up to date technical information about the design and function of TEDs. While several fisheries agencies in the USA and Australia (and elsewhere) have worked on the design and implementation of TEDS, much of this information is not available to conservationists working on the field. This collection of papers on TEDS provides an excellent compilation of available information and useful material to share with relevant fisheries sectors.

At this point, let me say that it is highly creditable, given the logistic difficulty with getting symposium papers together, even abstracts, that the editors were able to put this volume together so soon after the meeting. Further, the papers have been carefully reviewed and edited, and are generally of high quality. The CD ROM included in the volume is a good idea, but it might have been useful to include the text of the articles in the CDROM so that readers / users may have had the option of searching for the information using computerized searches. The audio files are certainly interesting (and worth preserving), but one is not sure how useful they are. It would also have been useful to have an index in a volume that contains substantial information on a range of topics related to sea turtles.

In the last section of the book, Sali Jayne Bache provides an account of the role of policy while Douglas Hykle presents the role of the Convention of Migratory Species (CMS) in sea turtle conservation. The recent conference on marine turtles at Manila Philippines, in June, 2001, (following the meeting in Kuantan, Malaysia in July 2000 and Perth, Australia in 1999) hosted by the Government of Philippines and CMS, finalised a Conservation and Management Plan to go with the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation and Management of Marine Turtles and their Habitats of the Indian Ocean and South-East Asia, which was signed by 8 countries. This is the essence of sea turtle conservation, in that these highly migratory species both require cooperation and offer an opportunity (provide an excuse, if you will) to bring people together under the aegis of a common goal. That is why these Oceanic Ambassadors are truly flagships for conservation, in particular the protection of marine ecosystems.

Kartik Shanker, Wildlife Institute of India, PO Box 18, Chandrabani, Dehradun 248001. India.