Kayak ecotourism may help determine the fate of an Indonesian island paradise.
story by Tony Moats photos by Dave Erley
“
Penyu! Penyu!” James points excitedly to something at the edge of the coconut grove. I see distinctive bulldozer-like tracks trace a path from the water’s edge to the place where he is pointing. He has found four sea turtle nests. The turtles must have come ashore to lay their eggs during last night’s full moon. James (pronounced Jah mis) jabs a sharp stick into each of the roundly excavated holes
and describes how yolk on the tip of the probe indicates freshly laid eggs. Soon, he holds what appears to be a rubbery white ping pong ball, dented on one side as if someone has applied just a little too much pressure to test its
firmness.The rest of the eggs are probably already on a village dinner table—there won’t be any baby turtles emerging from these nests in the coming months. I struggle to express my opposition to his taste for turtle with my feeble Indonesian
vocabulary.“There’re not many left”is my awkward attempt to explain the complex conser- vation issue. He doesn’t seem to understand. It doesn’t help that on almost every dive and certainly every day,we see turtles.“Not many turtles”doesn’t make much sense to this local
photo left: Pulling kayaks above the high-tide line on Kawe Island.
photo above: The author dives with a large adult female sea turtle. Conservation International says the Raja Empat is “potentially the world’s richest in terms of marine biodiversity.”
ADVENTUREkayakmag.com 33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52