More ‘converts’ to
pawikan conservation

BY REGINA BENGCO

November is a very busy month for marine turtle conservationists in the coastal towns of Bataan.

The local government of Morong town and members of the Bantay Pawikan Inc. celebrate the Pawikan Festival on the last week of November to drum up awareness and gather funds for the development of the turtle conservation center.

Wendell Acena, Bantay Pawikan project officer, said the Pawikan Festival, which started out as a small community project to celebrate a season of safe and protected nesting of marine turtles, is now a big environmental event that draws people from other parts of the country and even abroad.

He said the occasion is marked by beach environmental concerts, clean-ups, and environmental camps, among others.

But for the conservationists, the work actually started last September and would last until February next year, when marine turtles or "pawikans" lay up to 140 eggs each in the beaches of Bataan and Zambales provinces.

Members of the Bantay Pawikan Inc. have been patrolling the coast of Morong, digging up turtle eggs to protect them from predators and poachers, transferring them to special hatcheries, and releasing the hatchlings to the sea. Since the foundation started in September 1999, about 50,000 hatchlings have been released.

The coasts of Morong and Bagac towns in Bataan are nesting grounds of the Hawksbill, Olive Ridley and Green Turtle – three of five sea turtle species in the country.

All seven species of marine turtles are highly threatened by extinction, mostly because humans raid their nests and sell the eggs (they are perceived as aphrodisiacs), hunt them for their meat, and sell their shells and skin as combs, guitars and decorations. Because they have to evade many predators, the survival rate of the hatchlings is only 1-3 percent.

Aside from the Pawikan Conservation Center in Morong, there is also one at the Montemar Beach Club Inc. in Bagac and sattelite hatcheries in two other barangays in Morong. There have also been marine turtle sightings in the coasts of Samal, Pilar, and Mariveles towns and the conservation fever is catching on.

Amado Llanares and Francisco Matanong, former fishermen and turtle poachers who now work with the group, said it will take 20-25 years for the first female turtles that they released to instinctively return to the same shores and lay eggs.

"We will not be able to see them, but we hope our kids will," Llanares said.

He said their children and many of the youth in Bataan have promised to take up the cause of caring for marine turtles.