Simple strategies could save Malaysia sea turtles

By Clarence Fernandez

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Leatherback turtles that survived the age of the dinosaurs face extinction across the Western Pacific today, although rescue strategies could be as simple as moving eggs out of the reach of predators.

Conservationists and wildlife experts are meeting in Malaysia this week to find ways to raise funding for rescue programmes that will need to run for as many as 20 or 30 years before turtle numbers can fully recover, biologist Peter Dutton said.

"There's been a lot of concern about the catastrophic decline of leatherbacks around the Pacific, and a lot of effort put in to find out what is going on and what we can do to prevent their extinction," Dutton told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Leatherbacks, named for their leathery shells, are the largest sea turtles. They can grow up to a length of 6- feet , weigh nearly a tonne and survive until age 80, living in the ocean with the females only returning to land to lay eggs.

The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) warned last year that their numbers had plummeted because of egg harvesting and turtle hunting, while global climate change threatened breeding habits.

"People sell eggs, they eat eggs, then there are the pigs and dogs that come in and dig up nests," said Kitty Simonds, of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.

"Then there's development -- hotels -- and anything that comes close to the shore, like lights, is bad for turtles."

The number of nesting leatherback turtles in the Pacific has fallen to just 5,000, from about 91,000 in 1980.