In 2011 and early 2012 we didn’t find a single male new recruit (a juvenile just settling into the feeding ground after its first few years’ oceanic phase). But it was with great pleasure that on this recent trip in early August we caught a brand new male juvenile, indicating they are starting to survive and recruit to feeding grounds. The overall ratio is still way off, but this is a positive sign and we hope to find more and more males as the years go by.

This is an interesting case study when one thinks of climate change and a general warming of the world we live in: As temperatures rise will we see a greater proportion of male turtles? How will populations adapt? Our continued studies at Mantanani are aimed at keeping track of this, and we will keep you posted as things develop. In the meantime, congratulations to the hatchery operators in the region who have taken bold and positive steps to balance the natural turtle populations!

This afternoon we had some down time, and went into town to do some shopping to bring home some small things for our families - our small bit to support the US economy! For me this was a wonderful personal moment, seeing the guys buying things for their wives and children at home, and all of us sharing stories of our own families and giving this trip a personal feel as well as a professional one. We also stopped for a blowout lunch at a great seafood place over in historical downtown Panama City, feasting on oysters, crab cakes, a few more oysters, grilled tuna and shrimp, more oysters, and, and, and…. I think we’re all still reeling from the seafood intake, but it was nice to know we were all enjoying turtle-free shrimp!

Now everyone’s back packing their things, getting ready for a five am departure from our hotel to the airport. It’s a long way home, and I think everyone is looking forward to being back in Malaysia after this week of TED immersion. Me? I’m sitting back with a big smile on my face and a satisfied feeling in my heart, knowing this trip was all worth it. Every single second of it.

I trust you have enjoyed reading about our TED adventures and are as hopeful and optimistic as I am about the Malaysia TED programme. Please don’t hesitate to follow MRF’s Malaysia TEDs programme on our website at http://www.mrf-asia.org

For those of you with a penchant for the technical, here’s the skinny on the trials themselves: Without a doubt a top-shooting TED (with the exit hole on the top) made things easier for the turtles – when the bottom-shooting TED was in place we could see how the turtles struggled to find their way out for a minute or two longer then the other way around. But the downside of the top shooting TED is that debris and coconuts and logs and tyres etc. take longer or do not get out at all. One thing is for a turtle to actively swim around looking for an opening. Another is for an inert piece of wood to be pushed upwards defying gravity …. So the jury is out on which might work best in Malaysia. Indeed, chances are in some places with little accumulated debris underwater a top-shooter would be the best option, but in the waters in front of the Kinabatangan river in Sabah there’s so much wood, logs, coconuts etc. washed down from the interior that the TEDs would clog in minutes if we could not eject them downward.

For those of you wanting to know where things go from here, I can tell you I just could not be happier: By afternoon as the weather cleared and the boat crew decided it was all systems go. While I went on the boat, the Malaysian crew stayed back to get a head start on their report to the Director General of Fisheries in Malaysia. This is an auspicious start - when folk prefer to stay back to write a report rather than go on a boat you know things are moving forward! I stayed out on the boat while we tested another twenty turtles, and by the time I was back in he evening the guys had put the finishing touches on the report, which will be submitted on their return. Not surprisingly, they were telling me that they included so many of the things we had all been discussing all along: the need to work with the fishers from the very start, the need for a flexible approach and multiple options as far as excluder designs go given that each fishery is different, and importantly that the certification process would give our fishers the added leverage and negotiating power that they currently lack when selling overseas, and the need for a legal requirement of some sort for this to all work. They also commented on how the potential loss of shrimp would easily be offset by the increase in catch quality, something the Terengganu trials have already demonstrated. So it is onwards and upwards from here, and I remain confident that the ball is very much in motion, in the right direction.

Today’s trials were about making sure everything we thought we knew about TEDs still stood. We set the TED out with a 70 degree angle, where the flaps bunch up tightly against the grid and make sure no catch is lost, but we found that turtles can take more than five minutes to get out, especially if the opening is set to be a bottom-shooting TED. These experiences are like living gold, because it’s not every day someone gets to go out and purposefully test TEDs in various configurations to make sure we are giving fishermen the very best advice, and giving managers the best technical information upon which to base rules and regulations, and the Malaysian team got to be part of the entire thing.

The team also got to sit with Dan Foster and discuss circle-hook trials that the NOAA folks have been conducting, and which coincide with the work Rosidi and Sharum have been doing over in Malaysia, so there are a number of unexpected ways in which this trip has been useful for all. I am convinced these site visits have an incredible impact on people who have the potential to take the message back home and influence the future of fishing operations.

Today we were deliberately ‘shooting’ turtles through a trawl net and measuring the effectiveness of the TED with regards to how quickly the turtles were able to get out. This is how the NMFS test and certify new TED designs – most designed by fishermen – so that they can be used legally in the US. Anything longer than five minutes and the team of divers would step in and help the turtle to the surface. This was a complex operation. Three boats. Twenty one staff. Twenty five turtles. Nine hours. Four dives. The basic idea goes something like this: 1) Deploy a normal shrimp trawl with a TED installed. 2) Put a shot line down from the boat to the trawl headrope so turtles can be sent down to divers below. 3) Send three divers down from a second ‘dive boat’ to look after matters underwater. 4) Deploy a recovery team in a third boat to recover the turtles once they have gone through the net and are sent back to the surface by the dive team. 5) Come back and discuss the results.

Sounds simple, huh? But there is nothing simple to this in the slightest: There are strict communication rules between the divers and the Caretta through the shot line. There are strict diving safety rules. One of the divers sends a signal to the boat. Three pulls. A turtle gets sent down in a web basket and the lead diver underwater collects it, clips a flow to himself, and then clips the basket to the main net. Then he opens the basket, retrieves the turtle, and lets it go down into the trawl net. One other diver films the entire sequence. A third diver starts a stopwatch to time the escape. All three follow the turtle backwards towards the TED, and watch it make its escape. The moment it gets out of the TED the stopwatch is stopped; the float is clipped to the turtle and sent to the surface. Video stops. All three go back to the headrope, signal for a new turtle, and the process starts anew. On the surface a team is readying the turtles in their baskets. Another is recovering the turtles on the surface and relaying them back to the Caretta. The dive team signal with a yellow float that the dive is over and they are surfacing. Another team retrieves the main net between dives, while another team fills scuba tanks, others pass gear back and forth, and tend the boats. It is all a well-oiled machinery.

And the Malaysian delegation had some real fun and some real work. First up was Godfery: Dive assistant on the dive boat. Next dive, Rosidi goes out on the recovery boat – Godfery still is a fixture on the dive boat. Dive three, and Sharum’s on the dive boat and Rosidi is dive assistant. Syed keeps a watchful eye on all from the upper deck, taking it all in. Dive four and its musical boats again as the team go out on dive and recovery boats. Throughout the day they were physically handling turtles, working with the dive teams, and participating in the discussion of the results. John Mitchell was a great host explaining the whole process up front, and answering pointed and objective questions by the team. I could not have hoped for better hosts. Or for a better and more hands-on Malaysian delegation. The wonderful thing was the way everyone worked together – it is evident the Malaysian guys are all used to being out on boats, and the US team were more than welcoming and appreciative. I think we not only learnt a great deal, but forged some wonderful new friendships. It was great to stand back and watch it happen, and I am confident this is going to translate into great working relationships and a superb TED programme once we all get back home to Malaysia. The incredible learning opportunities a site visit like this brings can not be overstated: this was the first time the Malaysia team had ever handled these turtles (loggerheads is a first for all!) but also worked with TEDs and seen them in action. It would have taken me decades to provide this sort of experience back home, and we saw the results of thirty years of experience shine through in a single day. Simply amazing….

Sure enough, plans for the day have been shelved – ‘blown-in’ they call it, so we revert to Plan B: let’s build a TED from scratch. We rummage around the stores and come up with reams of new net webbing, and a TED super-shooter grid, a few sewing needles, a knife or two, and loads of enthusiasm. The Malaysian delegation were all ready: notepads out, cameras out, backpacks off and stored. And Jack Forrester was there ready to lead them through the entire process. First we need a long rectangle of net to make the extension into which the TED will be installed. Then this needs sewing down a long end to make a cylinder of webbing. Sharum takes the lead on this, but passes on to Syed, then Rosidi shows them all how it should be done. Takes a real gear guy and Rosidi knows his stuff… Now we hang the leading edge of the TED grid, measure back and hang the rear end, and hang the whole thing up to make sure the angle is just right. Now comes the interesting bit, sewing the webbing onto the grid all the way around to make sure it doesn’t slip and a turtle doesn’t get stuck. Everyone helps, with one team going left and the other round to the right. Even I help with this bit, as the rains hit once more and everyone takes shelter in the cabin. Ok, now things get interesting, because all the measurements and requirements the guys learnt yesterday come into play: How large can the opening be? How far from the sides? Ohhh the little details…. Ok, so now they are all hands-on: Sharum and Syed on the grid, knives out, turtle escape hole being crafted, while Godfery and Rosidi are cutting new webbing to make the flaps. Cutting net webbing in a straight line requires great skills, and the guys don’t let anyone down. It’s a veritable TED-making operation! Jack is gently guiding the team through step by step, and questions are flying back and forth. Not just the how, but also the why. So we’re nearly at the end, the two flaps need sewing on so they overlap a but at the leading edge, but Rosidi’s there counting meshes (knots) like he’s done it all his life, while the gang get the flaps and sewing needles ready. Now they take turns sewing for another half an hour and there you have it: a brand new TED installed in a six-foot extension, ready to be installed and used in real fishing operations.

But it’s now over yet. The NMFS guys had one last surprise up their sleeves, as they bring out Jeff Gearhart to inspect the new TED. Will it pass legal regulations? Will the Malaysia team pass on the first attempt? Hmmmmm. Tensions are high. Laughter all around tried to disguise the worry, but all in a good natured way. Let’s measure the opening. Let’s measure the flap extension beyond the escape hole. What about the angle? Anything else? And the guys pass! It’s a winner, with the angle the way it was designed to hang, and the openings and overlaps and extension all looking perfect. First time. Score one for the Malaysian team.

So the weather ‘blew us in’ but the day was not wasted. We had planned to do this later in the week but just switched the days around, and by the time we were done it was just shy of six pm. A whole day of learning and sharing, with just about everyone on the team having the chance to chip in: Capt. Drew, and his many years of experience. Jeff, Warren, Nick, Dan, Dominy, John, Jack. You name them, they all came down to lend a hand. I don’t know, for the life of me, how the Malaysian team ever understood some of them, with their southern American drawl and thick accents, but I must say that watching from the upper deck as they all laughed and joked the day away it was a memorable event. Another wonderful day in the Malaysian TED adventures over with the NMFS team in Florida!

Day two was about setting the scene: After personal introductions all around, Guy gave a very comprehensive presentation on what the Panama City lab does and how it helps with the TED trials, and welcomed the team to Florida. The Malaysian delegation was then treated to a short history of the long TED development process in the US by John Mitchell, who elaborated on the programme’s hiccups and trials and tribulations, and also its successes. It was good to get an overall historic account of how things had evolved with the programme, and to discuss what made things work. Of particular note, in response to a query form one of our guys, was how communication between NMFS and the fishers was really the key to having a programme up and running. And having Jack in the group, who was a shrimp fisherman when the TED was being introduced, allowed us all to hear the fishermen’s side of the story too. The team also got to see actual video footage of TED trials and even real turtle exclusions, and received packages containing printed and video materials to being back to Malaysia. We then were treated to a great presentation by Rigoberto on the introduction of TEDs, the certification with the US process, but also their decertification in 2010 following poor uptake and compliance by the Mexican fishers. But he also shared with us how the Mexican programme was turned around with a ‘zero tolerance’ policy which ensured Mexico got re-certified just ten months later. Rigoberto also highlighted how the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) in Mexico was a key ally in the process, as they could track individual boats which were suspected of bypassing regulations. Of course, all this was done in Spanish with me translating, so there were a few chuckles about having an Englishman come from Malaysia to translate for a Mexican guy in the US… But it was all good stuff, and helped highlight how the programme is not without its challenges. Jack then gave us all a very detailed presentation on TED specifications and US regulations – but highlighted that these were US regulations only - and how these came together to provide the backbone of the TED programme, and the guidelines under which it was enforced in the US. At the end of that, I must admit we were all dropping. 12 hours of time difference and a day’s worth of jet lag was taking its toll, and it was time to call it a day. Tomorrow we hope to be offshore if the weather holds, and we’ll keep you updated on progress.

The other side of the world is a long, long way away. Or so they say… But we found out yesterday and the day before (yes, it takes nearly two days…) as we travelled from Malaysia to Panama City Florida, to work with the US National Marine Fisheries Service as part of a learning exchange between Malaysia and the US. With me are four officers from the Malaysian Fisheries Department: Rosidi Ali and Sharum Yusof from the Fisheries Research Institute, in Kampong Aceh (Perak); Syed Abdullal Abdul Kader from the Terengganu Fisheries Department and in charge of turtle conservation in Malaysia, and Godfery Kissey from Sabah Fisheries Department. And no trip is without it’s little hiccups: I had to fly on a different aircraft from Kuala Lumpur to Seoul and arrived a few minutes earlier than the Malaysian team. Then in Seoul we had all kinds of fun making sure we all had boarding passes to Atlanta, and hoping we could also pick up our boarding passes down to Panama City – no go except for Sharum! Why him?... Then in Atlanta we had nail-biting moments making sure everyone made it through immigration, particularly Rosidi, as his visa was in an older passport. But all went smoothly, and we got our boarding passes, introduced the Malaysian team to the TSA’s upgraded security measures – kind of funny watching them holding up their trousers after taking off their belts to go through the scanner! – and eventually made it on to our short 1 hour hop down to Florida. The four absolutely zonked guys passed out before we even got to take off  Then in Panama City my luggage didn’t arrive…. What a surprise…. But we made it, and John Mitchell from the NMFS Pascagoula lab was there to meet us, and right behind us on our same flight was Marlene Menard, from the US Department of State, also to be part of the week’s expedition. We checked into our condo, and what a palace! Complete with all the comforts of home. But travel takes it’s toll, so we settled for an early evening meal and then we were all off to bed, ready for a full day of meetings the following day.

We set up a floating cage and deployed a turtle kitted with a time-depth recorder and a 3-d accelerometer to do just that. Coupled with a time stamped hydrophone listening for blasts, the turtle went about its daily life and collected data on its movements and general activity.

This was a test period to make sure we could get all the information we needed to link the two data sets, and so far all systems are go! The turtle adapted quickly to its 10m x 10m enclosure, and the hydrophone was able to capture a distant blast or two. Now we just need to deploy this for longer to capture the actual turtle reactions to the sound waves. Standby for updates later in the year.

But things are changing, and in the last year we have seen a dramatic rise in new recruits. These are animals which have left the beaches as baby hatchlings and spent the next five to six years out in the open ocean. They can be readily distingiushed from our longer resident animals by their beautiful white and smooth plastron (underside) which has no scratches, indicating they have never ‘reseted’ on the seabed before. They also invariably have no barnacles whatsoever, suggesting a constantmoving lifestyle, as opposed to the lazier habit of resting on the reef or sandy bottom when they arrive at coastal feeding grounds.

For some reason we are seeing a rise in arrivals of these new recruits (16 new ones this year in a populaiton of a couple of hundred, compared to the two or three we found in the past), which is good news for out turtle population - no new recruits, no animals to grow up and become adults!