REFLECTION ON FIELDTRIP

by Ronald Deck Yami

The world is full of people relying on nature. Yet, we seem to destroy it. Good thing,
there are still people who cares about our place of living, the flora and fauna who live together
with humans. This people, the workers of Turtle Management Centre Segari, Lumut, taught
me the importance of nature and peace. They are comprised of experienced workers for 10
years and above in managing turtles in the area. They taught me how to save the turtle as this
animal is almost extinct. Last April 19, 2019, we went on a field trip to Turtle Management
Centre Segari, Lumut for the courses Plant Physiology (SBF3023) and Animal Physiology
(SBF3033). I was excited with this trip as it is only my third field trip since the first semester
in Sultan Idris Education University (UPSI).

In this field trip, we have been briefed on the danger of plastic disposal at ocean.
According to one of the workers at Turtle Management Centre Segari, over 100 million marine
including turtles die each year due to marine debris. Marine debris was found in the stomachs
or intestinal tracts of the turtles (Plotkin & Amos, 1990). Once ingested, the plastic items can
cause a variety issue. Digestive tracts can become blocked, which can lead to starvation and
death. The harmful decomposition of marine debris is believed to be the cause of many of these
cases. Plus, certain plastic contains toxic additives that are distributed into the water and enter
into the food chain. Many turtles, that have been killed by consuming debris. This is an
important reminder to not participate in plastic releases.

After we observe the turtles, we went to see where the turtle eggs were collected and
kept. According to the man who works at Turtle Management Centre, the turtles bite each other
in the neck during the mating process, which takes place at sea. Every one or two years, the
females migrate to the shore to lay their eggs. They usually go back to the place where they
were born themselves. While laying the eggs, she goes into a sort of trance. But there are cases
like poachers exploit this moment to collect the eggs and subsequently sell them. Also, the
young turtles immediately move towards the water after hatching. The majority of the
hatchlings are soon eaten by fish, birds and other animals that like to feed on young, soft turtles.
This will lead to decrease the population of turtles and extinction. So, the people in charge have
to take a responsible to change the location of the eggs that are suitable and safe from poachers.
All of us have to take part on defending the population of turtles from extinct.

Next, I learned that turtles have a long life-span. Reminiscing on what the worker said
to us, the turtles have an ability to live about 120 to 150 years. One theory has to do with the
fact that turtles are cold-blooded and have what scientists call a slow metabolism. They don’t
have to eat as much food to survive, since they use the energy, they get from food very slowly.
Since they are cold-blooded, they also don’t need to use a lot of energy to keep themselves
warm (Musick, 1999). Our bodies need energy to keep us going. When we eat food, our body
uses chemical reactions to turn it into energy we can use. But sometimes this chemical process
also produces other products that end up damaging our tissues and cells over long periods of
time. When this happens, we see signs of aging, such as wrinkles. When we study animals with
a slow metabolism, we observe that there isn’t as much damage to their tissues and cells as
expected for their age and size.

In conclusion, there is a lot to know about turtles. Turtles live in many different places,
eat different things and have many species of them. We have to keep the turtle population from
being threatened by the disturber of this species. It is important that the people in charge to take
care of this animal become more sensitive to the inherent vulnerability of long-lived marine
animals in order to initiate early conservation measures. Simple indices such as growth rate,
and intrinsic rate of increase can serve as early warning signs to flag species at risk. In future
study, several factors should be considered to obtain the maximum hatching yield. Eggs should
be personality collected by us so that we have experience to handle the eggs of the turtle. Also,
we should have a good time management so that we will spend more time to gain a lot of
information.