Mabul World Turtle Day on May 3-8

Kota Kinabalu: The fourth edition of Mabul World Turtle Day will be held from May 3-8 at the Borneo Divers Mabul Resort.The programme is jointly organised by the Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Semporna District Office, Borneo Connections, Raintree Beach and Golf Resort and The Flying Dusun.

“The event aims to create public awareness, while enhancing education, research and conservation of the resident sea turtle population in the waters of Mabul Island in Semporna.

“In order to have a successful programme, we are calling for the participation of various agencies, including media organisations.

“We are also opening the event to resort guests in Mabul as well as the students from SK Mabul and the School of Hope Mabul to allow them to get hands-on experiences with sea turtle research,” the organisers said in a statement.

During the course of the programme, Dr Pushpa Palaniappan and her team from UMS’ Borneo Marine Research Institute will photograph, measure and tag all the resident green and hawksbill turtles caught in their natural habitat in Mabul by the expert dive team.

“The team caught 74 turtles – 65 greens and nine hawksbills, during the celebration of Mabul Turtle Day 2015, and we hope to match this total during the programme this year.”

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/BorneoDiversMabulResort.