Tackle poverty, then let’s talk conservation

Dr. Nick Pilcher,

February was a month of dreams realized, accomplished, fulfilled. Maybe because of Valentine’s day with people tending to be a little more conducive to giving ear and actually – listening, and best of all .. making things happen!

Or maybe because it is the month of my birth and life being shorter than it ever was in this uncertain world we live in –feeling that one had better be indulged, given into-the result was that we went whale watching.

Yes, on Saturday February 25 on the dot of 7 a.m., “Yours truly” and her entourage of extended family and a friend, made it to the Naval Base in Galle.

We went on the highway, and yes, I am a fan. In spite of all the doom and gloom, stone throwing and dead dogs. The latter chilled my animal-loving bones to the very core but all that changed quite recently with a trip on the Southern Highway to Mathugama one Sunday morning, quickly accomplished, and dead dog carcass free. And like I said – I became a fan.

We left Colombo at 5.20 a.m. and were in Galle at the exit toll gate by 6.20.a.m. (It must be mentioned and acknowledged here “thanks to some very good driving by offspring No:2”)

At the Naval base all is politeness and efficiency from start to finish – vehicle number check, someone to lead you up to the Princess of Lanka, personnel to check your reservation and accept payment, those who welcome you aboard, all smiling faces.

A little while after we were seated an announcement was made and we were off – heading out to sea and the treat in store.

We were allowed to stand on deck, looking out at a grey sea – it wasn’t yet too light or hot and sunny. Young Navy boys (some of them Navy Divers) stood all around us, not only ensuring our safety but also serving as Whale and Dolphin spotters, quite intent that we do see what we came for.

We soon saw a school of dolphins prancing ahead in the water. They chose not to come too close, as I prayed for the safety of these very lovable and friendly mammals.

Further out at sea, we heeded a polite request, that we return to our seats to have our snack. Trays down the front as in an airline, we snacked on a presentable boxed breakfast. Two sandwiches, a cutlet, etc, followed by a ‘tetra’ packed soft drink.

Back on deck there is a bit of a scramble for key positions, but the problem gets eased out as those who have sea legs triumph over those who do not or everyone finds their comfortable special niche and sticks to it.

Out in deep water what a thrill it was to spot our first whale, then another and another. The Captain cuts the engine as soon as there is a sighting – one balances the bit of heave and roll and “aaaaah” all is worth it.

The Naval personnel are adept at spotting and tell us - “over there and there.” One first sees a fountain of spray and then ‘magnificence’ appears.

Ah me – is this what they harpoon and kill ? !

After a time my so-called sea legs gave up on me - and I had to find a seat to take the deep breaths advised by the Captain as you start the tour. They work and I kept telling myself “you are going to fight the “queesy weesy” feelings somehow ! “(coming from someone who is not too happy at too many bends in a road up –country !)

Sleep helps, if you manage to get some shut eye. Just as I was nodding off rocked by the motion of the craft at a standstill , the intercom came to life and the Captain announced that a

Whale was heading towards the ship at the front. I lurched, like a drunken sailor – forward, determined.

I knew instinctively this was something special that HAD to be seen, no matter how I was feeling and how the stationary craft lurched. To the front I rolled on assisted into a life jacket by the helpful crew, and there I was on the front deck, holding onto anything and everything as I made my way to a wide empty spot and saw “Leviathan” as mentioned in the Bible come right up, right past me at almost touching distance. “Thank you God” I kept whispering and to anyone around me “so beautiful, so beautiful,” my voice breaking at the wonder of the moment.

The sound the giant mammal made was like that of a wheezing asthmatic – amplified! ! Heaving and whooshing in and out of the water as it passed dark brown, big, huge. I do not know if my imagination was playing tricks or it was the harsh sunlight – but I thought I saw that its body was striped, in the very same brown. This was no ordinary sighting, this was special, this was summoned.

I lurched back to my seat telling anyone who was willing to listen that it was great! Totally, totally worthwhile, great !

That just about summed up the whole experience.

If you love nature and all of creation you have to venture forth and do this. The whale

watching season from Galle ends in April. From Trincomalee the season is May to October.

“The Princess of Lanka” carried troops and civilians during the war, and now that her yeoman service is at end continues to serve the people in this way. Making it possible for folk like me who always wanted to experience this wonder out at sea, and considered it a distant dream, to become a reality, and I am grateful !

Back on terra firma, around noon - we headed out to find a place for “a sea bath” the term employed on almost every Sunday of my distant childhood.

We found a secret cove, and I am not telling – because it is just that “a secret” and I so want it to remain that way – not as the venue of the next Shangri La but belonging to “Citizen Perera” and me!

A cool box of soft drinks, our own homemade packs of lamprais for lunch, a mangrove cover- to suffice as a changing room, a friendly dog on hand to snack on all that was left in our “bio degradable” packs, what more did we want ?

The highway smoothened the return journey to Colombo in much the same way, but from Kottawa onwards it was a “buffer to buffer” traffic-filled hour !

It didn’t dispel the mood however, the buoyancy of the waves remained with us, rolling on as we relived the experience, floating on the heady sensation - of having had a whale of a time.

In late 2010, Dr. Nick Pilcher found himself in the unenviable position of being caught between Tata and Greenpeace as they waged war. One wanted to build a port in the Indian state of Orissa, the other was running a passionate campaign dedicated to stopping construction in the area because they believed it would threaten the existence of the Olive Ridley Turtles that lived and nested there.

Dr. Pilcher was asked for an opinion. He was particularly well qualified to give it for as the CoChair of the Marine Turtle Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Founder and Director of the Marine Research Foundation, a private NGO based in Sabah, Malaysia, he had worked on marine research projects in several countries spanning the Indian and Pacific oceans.

“I looked at it, and I thought yes, there could be some impacts but nothing we couldn’t deal with, nothing we couldn’t turn around,” he says, explaining that “at the time the two most pressing issues were that they were going to dredge 63 million cubic metres of sediment to create a big channel for the ships to come in and a lot of turtles lived in that area. The worry was they would get sucked up by these dredgers and that they would perish. The other immediate problem was lighting. Adult turtles don’t like to nest on a bright beach and baby turtles use light to find the ocean. So if you have a big huge port behind them they’re going to turn back towards the port instead of going out to the ocean.” Having identified the problem, Dr. Pilcher set about finding solutions. Col-

Sri Lanka became a signatory to the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation and Management of Dugongs and Their Habitats throughout their Range (Dugong MOU) on January 31, 2012. The Dugong MOU operates under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). The Secretariat to the Dugong MOU is funded and hosted by the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi on behalf of laborating with engineers, they designed giant deflectors that would protect the turtles from the machine’s pull, allowing the channel to be dug without endangering them. “What we did with the port itself, before they even laid the first brick, we were guiding them on what light units to instal and where to instal them, so that today if you drive up to the port you have to get to within about three km before you even see it at night.” The result is what he likes to call it a totally turtle friendly port. Dr. Pilcher believes it’s worth going to such lengths because he thinks that animal conservation and human development needn’t always be in conflict.

In Orissa for instance, a state with high incidence of poverty, he doesn’t believe it’s quite fair to say to someone “’No, sorry, you have turtles, you have to be poor for the rest of your life.’ How can you say that?”

Dr. Pilcher has become very well known in recent years for his work with sea turtles and dugongs. He sees remarkable similarities between the two, in fact, the Government of the United Arab Emirates. The UNEP/CMS Office - Abu Dhabi is currently working with the Department of Wildlife Conservation, IUCN Sri Lanka and Dilmah Conservation to implement preliminary work on conserving the dugong. This will include the conducting of surveys to gather knowledge on dugong distribution, abundance, and their ‘hotspots’ and main threats particularly from incidental captures by net fisheries. he describes dugongs as ‘mammal versions of sea turtles.’

After many dives in close proximity to these creatures, Dr. Pilcher has developed an unabashed fondness for dugongs. While attempting to get a transistor on these large, heavy animals he remembers being “flapped around like a sail.” The process would take several minutes and all the while the scientists were holding on to this “incredible, incredible being,” he remembers. “In many ways they’re human and yet they’re so alien, they’re fascinating,” he says. Today, dugongs are threatened not just by direct hunting but are also killed as catch.

Dr. Pilcher’s approach to conservation is a pragmatic one and could be very relevant to Sri Lanka. An eminent British marine biologist, he is also the lead technical advisor on an Arabian Gulfwide turtle research and conservation project involving Qatar, Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Though based in Malaysia, he was invited to deliver a lecture in Sri Lanka by Dilmah as part of their marine conservation programme. The company has expressed interest in helping local communities explore sustainable tourism and intend to undertake a Dugong survey.

Their approach appears to be in keeping with Dr. Pilcher’s own unusual philosophy. “I started out in life as a scientist,” he says, explaining that soon pure science went out the window for him. He saw no sense in confining himself to research alone when the animals he was studying wouldn’t even be around in a few years. “The gap between knowing that and using that knowledge to do something about saving them is something that many scientists have missed and I’m hoping that I’m not one of them,” he says.

However he goes one, perhaps controversial, step further. Dr. Pilcher says he’s becoming increasingly convinced that conservation agencies must look at meeting the basic needs of the humans involved in animal-people conflicts. “The one question that many conservation agencies are a bit afraid to ask, is what would it take to make you change your behaviour?” he says. Citing things like the illegal hunting of Dugongs and the collection of turtle eggs, he asks “What drives the family to do these things? Is it the easy way out? Is it the only way out? What issues of human development aren’t we looking at?”

He believes the solution, more often than not, can be found in the answers to those questions. “In most cases the biggest driver is poverty. Someone is not going to be concerned about conserving a species if they can’t feed their families. Those things come first, those basic human necessities come first. Once these things are made available to people, other things can take a higher priority.” In his experience, the smallest things can tip the scale. He cites micro-finance schemes that make money available to fishermen who need simple things like a new sail or outboard motor that would conceivably free them from having to hunt dugongs to keep their families fed.

“We keep on thinking that conservation is about the species, but wildlife management is an impossible thing in many ways,” he says. One cannot convince a turtle to change when and where it lays its eggs, nor ask a dugong to live elsewhere, but people are altogether different beasts, capable of great, voluntary adaptations. “When I started out, I knew a great deal about turtles, but as time goes by, I think I’m learning more and more about humans and it’s people that need to change,” says Dr. Pilcher.