‘No turtles died in tagging event’

KOTA KINABALU: A volunteer involved in a turtle-tagging programme at the Mabul Turtle Week has denied claims that turtles died during the event.

Herman Scholz, a Swiss, rejected claims by non-governmental organisations Semporna Professional Divers Association and Green Semporna that untrained volunteers could have caused some turtles to die as they were “shot up” to the surface using lift bags for the tagging.

The organisations had attached pictures and video of turtles that allegedly died during the event.

Scholz, who is a research assistant, said: “We are trained to handle the turtles. There is a core group that always joins this programme.

“Paid volunteers are allowed to join, watch and hold our equipment.

“They will be allowed to write the numbers on the turtles, but they are not allowed to handle them any further,” said Scholz, who has been participating in the programme since 2013.

Marine Research Foundation executive director Dr Nicolas J. Pilcher, who has 30 years of experience in handling turtles, had said that the technique of shooting up the turtles to the surface would cause decompression sickness, otherwise known as the bends.

Scholz, however, said turtles did not get the bends as their internal structure was different from that of humans.

“He (Dr Pilcher) prefers catching turtles with the rodeo method, where turtles are chased by boat into shallow waters till they have to slow down from exhaustion.

“Someone would then jump from the boat onto the turtles (hence, rodeo) and capture them.

“The turtles are taken aboard and, normally, we turn them onto their backs so they don’t move around in the boat,” he said, adding the turtles were photographed, measured and tagged.

Scholz said that after the marking, volunteers need to brush the carapace with a wire brush.

“Trust me, they don’t even feel that (being scrubbed with a wire brush).”

He said the semi-permanent mark would prevent other divers from catching the same turtle in the 3½-day programme.

The New Straits Times had reported on concerns about a research team believed to have caused decompression sickness to turtles by “shooting them up to the surface using a lift bag”.

SPDA and GS said they hoped that the authorities would look into the tagging programme involving tourists, which was held annually during the Mabul Turtle Week here.

They had claimed that after each programme, the number of turtles would “drop drastically” for a few weeks.