From Chennai, India to Singapore,
We leave India on a 3am flight for Hong Kong layover then on to Singapore, with it will be 20 hours of travel funk. We land in Singapore and are greeted by the Biosphere Foundation members, Mark and Abigail, affectionately known as Laser and Gaie. We are also reunited with Sierra, who has been holding down base camp at 3 Creeks in California, managing funds, mailings and donor communications. She wears two hats here, acting as the agricultural consultant for the Biosphere Foundation (BF) team in addition to her support role with Beyond Boundaries (BB)
We spent our first week with the BF team on the Anambas Island archipelago as part of an initiative to save the local sea turtle, the Green turtle, calle penyu lau locally. Unbeknownst to any of us, we would join a circus sponsored by the locally operating British owned Premier Oil. We spend time with Nina, the Community Outreach professional for Premier Oil, an Indonesian woman, whose incredible community development and conservation work earned her a slice of heaven. The local village headman on Matak island offered to sell her a parcel of Nongkat Island, meaning Respite or Shelter, the incredible oasis where we would begin and finish our time there. We are hosted by Nina’s husband Danny, a Javan by birth who lived in Australia for 25 years, has the thick Aussie drawl, and is trying to remember his Bahasa Indonesia. We are blessed with incredible food and a piece of paradise, though a major shift from the almost vegan Auroville.
Wearing our Premier Oil Save Lartikan Penyu Lau (Save the Sea Turtle) shirts, we parade ourselves by pong-pong, local boat taxi to the area school, where we are celebrities. Jay Nichols, an internationally acclaimed sea turtle conservation guru, gives short snippets in English, translated by the local Indonesian rock star grad student, Tenjung, who raps to the kids about why they need to change their turtle egg eating ways. This is no easy task, as eating turtle eggs has been going on here for, well, ever. …and they’re considered the local Viagra for men. (sorry turtles, but you may be on your way out!) Barring these local hurdles to conservation, we push forward to take a visit to pac Lahani (Mr. Lahani) who lives out on Durai Island. Pac Lahani has been harvesting turtle eggs, mind you, EVERY, turtle egg on Durai for the last 45 years. He says he’s 92 years old, but man if that’s true he’s in some good shape. Sea turtles live for a long time, the best guess is 80-100 years. Pac Lahani has watched the big old Mama turtle visits go from year round, every night, roughly 80 visits per night 45 years ago, to now 3-4 turtle visits per night. Like salmon, turtles return to lay their eggs on the beach where they were hatched. Take all the eggs (or fish out all the salmon?) and guess what? Nobody comes back to lay eggs!
Premier Oil has gathered the 6 land-owners on Durai Island and agreed to barter with them in exchange for their lost turtle egg revenues. Premier will help them start fish farming operations, buy them eco-tourism tour boats, invest quite significantly in their world (but not give them outright cash payments for fear of shady dealings or squandering) in exchange for Pac Lahani’s incredible gift. This man is a turtle magnet, can read the sand and find a nest, often buried 4ft down, without damaging a single egg. He counts eggs with an ambidextrous alacrity that would have Ford assembly line workers gaping in awe. He a turtle egg master. When we finally arrive on Durai on our second attempt (our first was foiled by a tipsy boat, heavy load, and big seas) we greet Pac Lahani, who has hatched 120 turtlings, (turtlets? turties?, turts?) with hopes that we will help him release them beyond the reef where they are most likely to be eaten by big, mean hungry fish. These little turtles send the needle off the dial in any cute-ometer, and we, of course, are all jazzed to release the little buggers (after a nauseating number of photographs for Premier Oil’s marketing)
Alright, since you must all be asking the question, “How could you accept the hospitality of such vile, vermicious characters as the demon spawn that work for oil companies?” and my answer must be, “not easily”. The team, both the BB and BF teams were stepping into slightly unknown territory with this one, and were whelmed by the degree to which we felt like we were both playing and being played by forces larger than ourselves. HUGE material for ethical case study, especially because the beaches in Indonesia are literally swamped by plastic trash and no-one, get that? NO-ONE has a trash management system. 60% goes directly into the ocean, and that which doesn’t is burned, then out into the ocean. Where is the trash coming from? From oil companies (originally) whose $8 billion/ year plastic industry is too high-yield to worry about a few mutilated sea creatures.
That said, it is truly incredible to be a part of Jay Nichols and the Biosphere Foundation (dubbed Dr. Gee by Tenjung,) conservation work. To save turtles requires a unique team. put an oil company, a pilgrimage, a conservation guru, and some sea people in a blender and watch what comes out…
More to come...
Photos! Internet is wicked slow and we can't upload.
Anambas to Menjangen Island, Bali
Unlikely Bedfellows
The Biosphere Team
West Bali National Park
Community Outreach, habitat management, bali starling breeding and reintroduction fprogram. preserve Manjangan Island reef
Kris Dance
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