By: Adella Adiningtyas (Marine & Fishery Campaign and Social Media Assistant) and Angga Prayudana N (Marine Buddies Surabaya Community)

Curiosity about the natural resources in Merubetiri National Park was the reason for Adynoto to participate in the Merubetiri Fun Trip 2016 organized by the Marine Buddies (Marbud) Surabaya Community on December 2 - 4, 2016. Adynoto, who works in the Bumi Serpong Damai - Tangerang area as Real Time Floor Monitoring for one of the leading banks in Indonesia, is willing to take the time to join Marbud Surabaya's friends. According to him, the golden opportunity rarely comes twice, in order to see the nature of Indonesia in the east of Java, Adynoto does not regret having registered as a participant in Marbud Surabaya activities.

Meru Betiri National Park has forest and beach adventure attractions. Many of the beaches are still "virgin" because permanent tourist facilities are not allowed to be built. The 58,000-hectare National Park area has a high diversity of flora. In addition, this National Park also has its own characteristics, namely the habitat of leatherback turtles, hawksbill turtles, green turtles, and Ridel / Olive Ridley turtles on Sukamade Beach.< br />

And apparently, it was not only Adynoto who wanted to see the natural conditions in Merubetiri National Park, but there were Adrie Prasetyo Nugroho, a radio broadcaster and Apriyani Ekowati, a student from Jakarta and Astin Soekanto, a Dipenogoro University Communication Lecturer from Semarang who also gave up his activity time to come to join other participants.

Departing from Al-Akbar Grand Mosque Surabaya, 32 participants started the journey using a tour bus to Banyuwangi at 8 pm on Friday, December 2, 2016. During the trip, the committee also did not forget to remind the details of the agenda while in Merubetiri National Park. After entering the National Park area, the participants changed transportation using a truck to get to Sukamade Village because the road conditions were rocky and very steep.< br />

While on the truck, the faces were full of enthusiasm and excitement. It is not surprising because most of the participants revealed that this was the first time using a truck as a means of transportation. The journey was very enjoyable even though there were delays to Sukamade Village due to road conditions. Traveling for 14 hours to get to Sukamade Village, participants did not show fatigue and wanted to immediately rush to take part in the series of events.< br />

Unfortunately, the jungle tracking activity that was supposed to be done on Saturday afternoon had to be replaced with sharing time due to a landslide in the national park. In addition, the high rainfall when we came to visit required the organizers to change the schedule of activities.

After some sharing time around the Marine Buddies community, we arrived at the highlight of the event, turtle nesting! Participants were asked to leave the room to stop at each committee post to reach the beach. Although the weather was quite challenging, it did not stop the participants from enjoying the activity with Marbud Surabaya.

Behind the Silence of the Night

At 7:30 pm, participants, organizers and other visitors were asked to gather in front of the National Park office. Before the observation of turtles laying eggs on the beach, Mr. Junaedi gave directions on what can and cannot be done. Such as, no noise while on the beach, no light while waiting for the turtles to come and no flash cameras if you want to take pictures of turtles laying eggs.

While the green turtles were laying their eggs, Mr. Junaedi explained the life of the turtles in the area. He also directed the light from a flashlight for visitors who wanted to take pictures. Unfortunately, despite the light, there were still visitors who misbehaved by using flashes, so Mr. Junaedi had to explain again why flashes were prohibited. According to him, turtles can experience temporary blindness if exposed to camera flashes directed at them.

Enthusiastic faces can be seen when turtles are laying eggs. Participants could not wait for the next day to get material from Dwi Suprapti, Marine Species Conservation Coordinator WWF Indonesia, release hatchlings and visit Green Bay. Ms. Dwi provided a lot of interesting information about sea turtles in Sukamade Village. Many participants then asked questions about sea turtle conservation in Indonesia, especially on the island of Java.

"This trip was very fun because it was my first experience observing turtles laying eggs directly" said Apriyani at the end of the Merubetiri Fun Trip 2016. Together with the Marine Buddies Community, the public is invited directly to witness and protect the uniqueness of nature and its animals.