The turtle conservation internship in Malaysia that changed the trajectory of my life!
- Conservation Bubbles
- Jul 18
- 2 min read
By Eleesha Ngoh, BTC Intern of 2023
Coming up on the 2 year anniversary of the most amazing experience of my entire life, I'd like to look back upon the fond memories of the experience that kickstarted my love for nature and conservation. 2 years ago, my young, naive, freshly out of high school self, went on a turtle conservation program with my best friend that changed the trajectory of my life.
For 3 months, all we did was collect turtle eggs, swim in the ocean, consume copious amounts of instant noodles at 3am mid-patrol, witness some amazing wildlife and nature, and chat with the coolest people you'd ever meet. Not to mention playing hide and seek with the resident rat in our conservation hut! I worked at Bubbles Turtle Conservation, led by Wei Qi Loke and Gabrielle Côté and dived headfirst into the multifaceted world of conservation.
Our typical nightly routine would be: start patrols at 9pm every night, and ending at 7am the next day, walking the 1km stretch of beach every hour and noting the emergence times of any mother turtles.
Once she started laying, we would sit inconspicuously behind her and collect the eggs as she was laying them into a bucket gently. We would then haul the bucket (full of eggs, on average 100 ping-pong ball sized eggs!) across the beach to our hatchery, where we would then dig a chamber equivalent to the natural egg chamber that the mother turtle would dig, and gently place the eggs back in.
The whole process would take around 3 hours from start to finish, and on busy nights we would have 4-5 mama turtles laying all at once! After she finished laying, we would also measure her carapace (shell!) length and width, as well take pictures of her facial scales on both sides, so that we can ID her from our existing database of turtles and see if she is a recurring or new mother turtle on our beach.
Sometimes, the mother turtle would choose to nest in the most uncomfortable positions (for us at least), under sharp low-lying branches and bush, or under a tree that would obstruct our ability to collect eggs or ID her facial scales! (Therefore the insane stances as seen in the pictures)
But our work didn't just stop there! We also conducted nightly turtle talks with the resort guests to educate and inform them on the importance of turtle conservation, as well as host volunteers for our turtle conservation program!
We would lead snorkel tours and fish ID sessions, guide them on how to collect eggs and ID turtles, and explain the topography of the bay and native flora and fauna on the beach. We also did regular beach cleanups, as well as simple repair work to the growing hatchery such as weaving holes in the fences from monitor lizard advances.
It was such a fulfilling experience that I will always hold dear to my heart! It really opened my eyes to how much hard work conservation work really is, and how beautiful and rewarding it is. We even had the chance to share this magical experience with our friends and family, who came to visit us!
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