Rising mercury a threat to turtles

"This hurts the breeding ability of the turtles," Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong said yesterday as an academic of the Phuket Marine Biological Centre's Marine Endangered Species Unit.

He explained that the temperature of the incubating egg determines the sex of the baby turtle. Aside, he said turtles would not lay eggs in areas hotter than 34 Celsius degrees.

Kongkiat was speaking out of concerns that the global warming would endanger the turtles.

According to him, academics in the marine endanger species in Asia were now paying close attention to the possibility that the turtles might become extinct in the increasingly warmer world.

Currently, surveys have found that the number of turtle nests around Thailand's beaches have significantly reduced from 2,000 to just around 400 and 500.

Kongkiat said the Marine and Coastal Resources Department was now mulling a plan to save the turtles from extinction by collecting their eggs from natural habitats and incubating them at the appropriate temperature.

At the 29.5 Celsius degrees, the ratio of male and female babies from turtle eggs are 50 to 50.

"Then, the baby turtles can be nurtured under our care for about 10 months after which we will release them to the wild," Kongkiat said.

However, he said the plan would cost quite a lot of money and the nurtured turtles might not develop hunting instincts to survive on their own later.

"But if we don't nurture them, they have minimal survival rate because they have so many natural enemies," Kongkiat said.

Aside from the breeding, he was also concerned that the global warming would reduce food sources for the turtles.

On other helpful breeding techniques for the turtles, veterinarian Sonthaya Manawattana disclosed that the Marine Endangered Species Unit and the Kasetsart University were successful in using electroejaculator technique to collect semen from six Ridley's turtles.

"The semen is of good quality and the turtles are safe," he said.