Scubaism

The government recently noticed there isn’t as much tourism money coming in for turtle watchers. There are fewer turtles to begin with (SEATRU states that the turtle population has dropped by 98% over the last 50 years) — mainly because the locals keep eating them.

So the Malaysian government doesn’t stop the turtle eating. Instead, they build museums to turtles, as reported by the New Straits Times. In the hope that tourists will be content to look at photos of turtles instead of the real thing.

There are a few issues in this situation.

1. There are fewer turtles. They keep getting caught and eaten.
2. There are many restaurants selling boiled turtle eggs. The locals regard eating turtle eggs as their cultural right. There is an entire cottage industry in finding and selling turtle eggs and it is done under the auspices of the government.
3. What complicates things is that the people in the areas where turtles are found and eaten are dirt poor and find turtle eggs for sale to supplement their income.

Some divers like myself try to do our part in turtle conservation by rescuing turtle eggs and paying the local fishermen to raise the hatchlings and then release them. We ensure accountability by paying visits during the release and giving bonuses for each turtle that gets released. Hopefully, we’ll see more of our hatchlings in the water when they’re grown up.