The Perils of Penyu: Ritual and Dietary Turtle Meat. Part
Three
Bali’s turtles have an intrepid band of guardian angels
and expatriate heroes fighting gallantly against all odds
for their survival: Chris Brown (founder of Reef Seen Aquatics
Dive Centre in Pemuteran), Heinz Von Holzen (internationally
acclaimed cookbook author and proprietor of the highly rated
Bumbu Bali Restaurant in Tanjung Benoa), and Karl Meyer (owner
of the spiritual, magical, Melka Excelsior Hotel Dolphin and
Wildlife Resort in Lovina). Non-governmental organizations
like the World Wildlife Fund and Profauna (www.profauna.org)
buttress and re-enforce their hands-on, island-wide field
efforts. Turtle conservation on Bali involves a long-term,
two-pronged attack against indigenous, centuries-old, dietary
turtle meat consumption and the continuing, illegal trade
in a highly endangered species. Bali’s most successful
and innovative turtle conservation measures involve offering
the Balinese financial incentives to preserve and replenish
Bali’s over-harvested, steadily declining, wild turtle
population. Chris Brown’s initiative in the peaceful,
off-the-beaten-tourist-track village of Pemuteran served as
a much-copied model for subsequent turtle and coastal wildlife
preservation work in Bali. Situated on clear, pristine Pemuteran
Bay since 1992, Reef Seen offers locally staffed diving courses,
expeditions, snorkelling, and horseback riding (on-site stables).
In 1993 Chris rescued a sea turtle caught in a neighborhood
fisherman’s net: he tied it to a rope, let it out to
graze in the sea by day, and sheltered it in a small pond
at night. He launched the Pemuteran Turtle Hatchery Project
a year later to protect adult turtles and hatchlings, raise
local awareness about Pemuteran’s wild turtles, teach
the next generation about marine turtle conservation, and
contribute to the future survival of this fragile “food
species.”
Chris designed a popular, cold-cash-for-warm-eggs community
involvement project to reduce turtle egg consumption (many
newly laid eggs were prematurely lost to human and dog predation)
and simultaneously open up an important new income stream
for local villagers. Rather than digging up and dining on
turtle eggs, they could sell them to the hatchery for a profitable,
above-market price of Rp.400 apiece (now Rp.1,750). Formerly
a threat to nesting Green, Olive Ridley, and Hawksbill turtles,
area fisherman now scour the beach for freshly deposited eggs
every day in nesting season to trade them in at “Proyek
Penyu.” By compensating the Balinese for changing their
daily eating habits and abstaining from part of their traditional
maritime diet, Brown gave them an alternate, eco-friendly
way of earning money—as well as an incentive not to
kill the adult goose that lays these precious golden eggs.
The artificially protected eggs are incubated in a fenced-in,
garden sand pit and released into the local ocean at age three
months or older (when they are larger and their chances of
survival are better). Over 6,400 juvenile hatchlings (tukik)
have been returned to the wild between 1993 and 2007. Proyek
Penyu and Chris’s spacious, ranch-like, seaside compound
are accessible in person or in cyberspace at www.reefseen.com.
For a modest donation, wildlife lovers can personally release
a juvenile or adult turtle to the brilliant local seas: you
will always remember that an innocent living creature swims
and reproduces in the wild because of your concern and generosity.
Chris Brown reflects in 2007 on the deluge of adult turtles
accidentally ensnared in local fishing nets. “Previously
they were killed (as they damaged the nets and ate the fish),
but Pemuteran’s Ko-operasi Nyelan established new rules
that anyone catching these turtles must now bring them here.
We pay them (Rp.25,000) as a reward and then find a sponsor
to pay to release the turtle. The sponsor money (Rp.150,000-200,000
) is split between the fisherman and the project, which compensates
them for the damage to their nets. Anyone who kills, sells
(elsewhere), or eats a turtle is fined Rp.100,000 and if caught
again, is kicked out of the fishing co-op. This is working
extremely well and shows that the thinking is changing in
the village. When locals see large turtles about to be slaughtered
in neighboring communities, they purchase them in order to
save their lives and bring them to us.”
Chris Brown’s project serves as a trigger and inspiration
for such other turtle champions in northern Bali as Karl Meyer,
active owner of the Melka Excelsior Wildlife Resort (www.balimelkaresort.com).
Lovina fishermen automatically know to bring live adult turtles
(and other stranded animals) entangled in their nets or found
on the beach to the Melka. Karl pays them Rp.50,000 per turtle
and houses the turtles in a luxurious, well-scrubbed and tended
outdoor pool for a few weeks afterwards to recover. A veterinarian
checks the newcomers and treats any net-related injuries sustained
by the turtles. Forty adult turtles found sanctuary at the
Melka from 2005 to 2007: thirty were introduced back into
the ocean, and two were given to Projek Penyu. Karl also cooperates
with Chris’s turtle breeding program: egg-laying females
are segregated for safety and then transferred eggs in tow
to Reef Seen Aquatics for specialized hatching supervision.
Celebrity master chef (and ardent turtle advocate) Heinz Von
Holzen (www.balifoods.com) is at the very forefront of Bali’s
turtle preservation efforts. Heinz initiated his own program
to rescue live turtles and turtle eggs sold by Javanese fishermen
at seaside market stalls in Tanjung Benoa and Jimbaran. His
Bumbu Bali restaurant staff monitors the fish and produce
markets daily and purchases any turtle eggs or adults discovered
for sale. When twenty-five large green turtles suddenly arrived
by boat at Tanjung Benoa (destined for certain sale and open
slaughter in Bali), Heinz’s staff pounced on the market
drop-off point, bought all the turtles, and conveyed them
to their rehabilitation center. Several days later, another
ship arrived bearing four hundred turtles: due to limited
time and money, only eleven could be rescued. Heinz incubates
and hatches all rescued eggs in his restaurant’s pools
and ponds; he liberates hundreds of green turtles a year back
to nature. He also distributes and supplies baby hatchlings
to participating hotels in Bali, Lombok, and north Sulawesi
for fund-raising and consciousness-raising ocean repopulation
programs (sympathizers release the reptiles directly onto
the waves for a very grateful donation). Jimbaran Bay’s
Intercontinental Hotel (another important Heinz triumph) participates
in this Peduli Penyu (“take care of turtle”) egg
hatchery--ocean release scheme. The hotel pre-emptively collects
eggs deposited on the beach to prevent them from being snatched
by locals (villagers harvesting eggs may exchange them at
the Intercontinental and receive nutritious chicken eggs or
money in return). The re-buried eggs incubate in a small,
beachside sand pit for three months; they spend the next three
months in an adjacent stone pool until their shells get hard
and they are old enough to survive the rigors of Bali’s
ocean.
