The Sun, 28 July 2009

Three young women calling themselves "Telur rangers" are on a mission to collect signatures from the public in support of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia's "Egg=Life" turtle conservation petition.

Nelleisa Omar, Chong Huey Meim and Grace Duraisingham will travel all over the country to collect 100,000 signatures calling for stricter laws on the protection of this endangered species.

The trio started their journey yesterday at Carrefour, Tropicana City Mall, making their way to Ipoh. they plan to end their road trip on Aug 8.

"After pledging our support for the campaign, we came up with this idea of a road tripto collect signatures for the cause. We approached WWF-Malaysia and they loved it," said Nelleisa.

Carrefour marketing director Low Ngai Yuen said when the hypermarket heard about the campaign, they felt they had a role to play in conserving the endangered species.

"One culprit in endangering turtle's lives is the entanglement, suffocation and ingestion of plastic bags so we are taking a bold step and will declare Monday as "No Plastic Bags Day," said Low.

She said Carrefour awareness programme, launched yesterday will initially set aside plastic bags for customers to "allow them to get used to it" but are only available on loan.

Each plastic bag loaned will cost 10 sen and if the bag is returned, the customer will be refunded. Money not refunded will be directed to the turtle saving efforts," said Low.

WWF-Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia Seas programme manager P. Gangaram said the petition is a means to support WWF's campaign to call for more protection for turtles.

"The laws are not sufficient to protect these turtles so we are trying to get in more effective laws," said Gangaram.

WWF-Malaysia is currently working with the fisheries department at both federal and state level on conservation work in Terengganu and Malacca.

Gangaram said in some states the collection of turtle eggs is legalised and there are licensed egg collectors who are supposed to bring the eggs back to the hatchery but this is not always the case.

"There are many eggs being poached," he said.

'We want people to stop eating turtle eggs and one way to make it illegal to sell or trade in turtle eggs; however the laws do not cover that.

There are four species of marine turtles - the Leatherback, Green, Hawksbill and Olive Ridley - that visit some Malaysian beaches during nesting seasons between April and September.

More information on the Telur Ranger's mission is available at www.telurrangers.blogspot.com