DIPOLOG CITY, Feb. 4 (PIA)
- - Some seventy five hatchlings of sea turtles or locally known as “pawikan”
were found along the shore of Surf, Barangay Miputak in this city Dipolog City recently.
Children swimming in said
beach reportedly saw these baby turtles and told a certain resident trained on
handling endangered species about the hatchlings that were creeping along the
beach.
Fish Warden Teresa Sañado
pointed out that these hatchlings were believed to be two days old.
Sañado also believed that
there are more sea turtles around the bay of Dipolog City that would go ashore
to lay eggs.
After mating at sea, adult
female sea turtles go to land to lay eggs at night. The mature nesting female
hauls herself onto the beach and finds suitable sand on which to create a nest.
After the hole is dug, the female then starts filling the nest with eggs and
re-filling the nest with sand until it is relatively undetectable visually. She
then returns to the ocean, leaving the eggs untended.
Pawikan is one of the
endangered species our government and the international community sought to
protect and preserved.
Philippine
laws governing the protection and preservation of wildlife including “pawikan”
are Executive Order No. 542, which created
the “Task Force Pawikan,” and RA NO. 9147, an act providing for the conservation and protection of wildlife
resources and their habitats.
Sañado said that her
office is preparing for the release of the hatchlings in due time.
For her part, City Mayor
Evelyn T. Uy was grateful to the residents for their apt and positive response
to fishery laws as well as those regulations implemented by the Department of
Natural Resources more specially the law on the protection of endangered
species. (FPG/MAA/PIA-ZamboNorte)
