SUNSHINE STORIES

Posted by: Sofia Johari On the 8th February 2010 while we were in WWF-Malaysia Borneo head office, and while we were having our quarterly review on the progress of our work in the proposed Tun Mustapha Park, I received a call from Asri (our staff in the Kudat field office) informing me about the first batch of relocated turtle hatchlings in Berungus have emerged after 65 days of incubation! It was a pleasently distracting news. Everyone are excited about this new development on the conservation effort being done in Kg. Berungus. We decided to release the baby turtles the next day when the tide is high and when Irwan and most of the team members are in Kudat. All photos are credited to Irwanshah Mustapha. Firts batch of turtle hatchlings emerging! 43 hatclings of the first batch of the first relocated nest. The hatchlings are of Green turtle ( Chelonia mydas ). According to the Kg. Berungus communitys' log book, the initial number of eggs are 119 eggs, firts batch only 43 hatched. ...

Posted by: Sofia Johari An hour of walking to Kg Berungus in shallow water during low tide. On the 22 - 23 December 2009 WWF-Malaysia (Kudat-Banggi PCA) collaborated with Yayasan Sabah (Zon Pantai Barat Utara) organizing an Environmental Stewardship Workshop at Kg. Berungus, Pitas. The participants are from Kudat District (Kudat Town, Kg. Air, Kg. Tanjung Kapur, & Taman Orkid), Banggi (Karakit Township, Kg. Perpaduan, & Kg. Singgah Mata) and Pitas District (Kg. Berungus & Kg. Telaga). There were 20 youth participants from different family background and level of education. The workshop comprised of two major activities: 1) 'Bubu' Making 2) Turtle Hatchery Management Pushing the boat during low tide The major objective of the workshop is to instill stewardship on the environment and natural coastal resources among the youths. This is to build their capacity and prepare them towards the gazettement of the Tun Mustapha Park (TMP) where the community collaboratively wi...

Posted by: Robecca Jumin Saturday, 8th August 2009. In the past two days, we hosted a visit from the newly created Environment and Conservation Unit of the Sabah Fisheries Department. We felt very privileged to host the visit of the full team of the unit that also happen to handle the SSME Tri-National Programme in Sabah, of which our project is closely affiliated. On the first day, bad weather threatened to completely ruin our plan to bring our guests to the many places within the proposed Tun Mustapha Park (TMP) that we thought would be a ‘must visit site’. But ‘good’ weather prevailed - the rain stopped and the wind subsided enough to allow us to visit at least two of the 4 sites we planned to visit. The visit to Kg. Berungus, Pitas and Karakit, Banggi was worth the rough boat ride across Banggi Channel and the perilous short cross over a fishing vessel and fish cages to get to dry land in lieu of a proper jetty. The discussions the next day was equally rewarding and enlightening f...