Author: Aulia Rahman
Translated by Byanmara

Jakarta, December 4, 2008 - Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) named Ana was being monitored by satellite  in the south of Lombok Island and Sumbawa Island. Ana seems to be heading south towards the Australian continent after being observed for 7 days since the installation of satellite tracking on shells. Installation of satellite tracking took place on 26 November 2008 at Sukamade beach, Meru Betiri National Park, East Java.

Since the installation of satellite tracking, the female turtle has traveled a distance of 369 kilometers around the coastline of East Java and Bali and crossed to the south around the island of Lombok and Sumbawa island. Installation of satellite tracker itself aims to study the life of turtles and their role as part of the ocean ecosystem. From satellite monitoring can be seen how the pattern of migration, spawning, eating places, and disturbances for turtles.

Satellite monitoring activities, community development, socialization of the use of fishing lines by fishermen, is part of the turtle conservation effort that has been done WWF since back then. Some of the threat identification for conservation business are turtle egg turtle activity, turtle meat consumption, marine pollution, and by-catch by longshore long fishermen.

In addition to Ana, other turtles paired with satellite tracking is a type of turtle Semic Turtle or Lekang turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) at Ngagelan beach, Alas Purwo National Park, East Java. Dwi, the name given to the turtle Lekang, for less than a week after the installation of satellite tracker only revolves around Ngagelan beach. This is likely because Dwi is still in laying period, so it will still spin until the time to land back to the same beach to spawn.

The series of satellite tracker installations on the turtles are included in a series of sea turtle conservation training by WWF and Udayana University. A total of 25 participants from all turtle conservation areas in Indonesia such as Aceh, West Java, Bali, East Java, Wakatobi and West Kalimantan attended the training. It is expected that this training will provide sustainability and exchange of information from each conservation manager as each management area will face different species of turtles and different challenges.

The implementation of satellite installation on Green turtle and turtle Lekang is a series of monitoring activities by WWF and Udayana University Bali. The cooperation also targeted Udayana University as an academic and scientific reference for turtle problem in Indonesia.

The introduction of sea turtle species, gender identification, DNA identification, conservation management, satellite installation, and turtle nesting area patrol are some of the materials provided during the 10 days of the training series. 

Memeti - turtle tracks that do not lay eggs © Aulia RAHMAN / WWF-Indonesia
Counting the number of turtle eggs in the field © Aulia RAHMAN / WWF-Indonesia

Comparison of eggs with human hand © Aulia RAHMAN / WWF-Indonesia
Ana is heading towards Samudra Indonesia © Aulia RAHMAN / WWF-Indonesia

Tukik (Anak Penyu) yang baru menetas di lokasi penetasan © Aulia RAHMAN / WWF-Indonesia
Tukik berlarian menuju garis cakrawala (proses imprinting) © Aulia RAHMAN / WWF-Indonesia

Tukik that is newly hatched at the hatchery location © Aulia RAHMAN / WWF-Indonesia
Tukik runs toward the horizon line (imprinting process) © Aulia RAHMAN / WWF-Indonesia

Impersonation of spawning locations from predators © Aulia RAHMAN / WWF-Indonesia
Park officials secure eggs from theft  © Aulia RAHMAN / WWF-Indonesia

Ana’s crawl path for a week since the installation of a satellite tracker. Image from www.seaturtle.org/tracking