23,500 turtles hatch in Malacca

MALACCA: A total of 23,677 baby turtles were hatched at the turtle management centre at Padang Kemunting in Masjid Tanah, near here, last year.


This was 48.82 per cent of the 48,503 eggs incubated at the centre, state Industry, Commerce and Entrepreneurial and Cooperative Development Committee chairman Datuk Md Yunos Husin said on Saturday.


He said 137,097 baby turtles were hatched between 2006 and last year.


The number was 56 per cent of the 242,992 eggs incubated at the centre, Yunos said after launching the Agro-based Entrepreneurs Carnival at the International Trade Centre in Ayer Keroh.


He said 2,031 turtles landed on beaches here during the same period, more than at any other spot in the country.


He added that the centre found 50 dead turtles in coastal areas here, some of them caught in fishing traps, during the same period.


He said there was a huge jump in the number of visitors to the centre last year -- 21,574 compared with 9,107 in 2009 and 2,447 in 2008.


Albino baby turtle

 According to Yunos, there were now 3,200 Malacca-born entrepreneurs, with about 1,600 of them in agro-based industries. -- Bernama

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