SWIMMING with sea turtles is one of the best ocean experiences and one does not need to be a diver to enjoy this activity. A snorkelling session at The Taaras Beach & Spa Resort provides just the chance for you to get up close with these marine creatures.
“We guarantee that you can swim with turtles from April to October at The Taaras, and you can see about five to 15 turtles in July and August. We’re the only hotel in Malaysia where you can swim with turtles, and the only hotel in the country with an in-house turtle lab,” said Berjaya Hotels & Resorts group general manager Pravir Mishra.
During the turtle nesting season from April to October, guests have the chance to release hatchlings into the sea, the contributions from this will go towards the research and development of turtle conservation at Seatru Turtle Lab, housed at the lobby of The Taaras.
Since 1993, Sea Turtle Research Unit (Seatru) and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) has been collaborating with Berjaya Corp Bhd to sustain sea turtle conservation efforts on Redang Island.
The Seatru Turtle Lab is a public viewing laboratory at Taaras that was launched in 2018 to provide sea turtle conservation and education to guests. The laboratory is the first of its kind in Malaysia, allowing in-house guests to witness sea turtle conservation first-hand during their vacation at Taaras. The lab is managed by Taaras’s very own marine biologist who works with a team of Seatru scientists and trained research assistants from UMT.
At the lab, guests will be guided through the sea turtle life cycle from nesting and hatching through to species identification, measuring and tagging sea turtles, and understanding natural predators.
Taaras junior marine biologist Muhammad Danial Hakim told theSun that the Seatru Turtle Lab at the resort was established given that the turtle sanctuary nearby has limited facility for research, and that the lab will shorten the time to transfer the turtle clutch for research. There are four cylinders in the lab where each cylinder can store 60 to 80 eggs.
“From the Chagar Hutang turtle sanctuary in the north of Redang Island, we move the clutches and incubate them in lab for scientific experiments purpose, before releasing the hatchlings into the sea.”
He added that Taaras also embarks on coral conservation with fellow divers. Interestingly, guests can also adopt a coral.
“Natural coral reefs die due to rising temperature in the ocean caused by climate change that stresses the coral, whereby human intervention is needed. We will then plant artificial reefs into the ocean to restore the marine ecosystem.”
