Some
8,000 hectares are part of the Subic Bay Metropolitan
Authority reservation area and about 9,000 hectares
are identified as water shed-primary growth forest
area. Industries in Morong include mango/cashew production,
vinegar-making, and basketry.
We visited Morong upon the invitation of the Provincial
Tourism Office of Bataan to witness the third Pawikan
Festival 2007. Pawikans are marine turtles that,
for years, were hunted for their meat and their
eggs. Each
year Morong celebrates the town’s pawikan conservation
efforts.
Six groups from different schools participated in the
very colorful street dancing competition
An early morning “Save the Pawikan Walk for a
Cause” saw members of different government
agencies and non-government organizations walk from
Morong to
the Pawikan Conservation Center for body painting
and paddle painting contests, sand sculpture, beach
volleyball
and kite flying activities.
The Pawikan Con-servation Center was also on hand to
talk about their efforts to let guests know more about
these sea turtles. They said all seven species are
now highly threatened.
They have a powerful paddle like flippers which they
use to navigate but which they cannot retract to their
protective shells. This sets them apart from their
freshwater counterparts.
Most male pawikan spend their entire life in the sea
while the female come to their nesting beach during
the coldest months of the year to lay their soft and
leathery ping-pong-shaped eggs.
It is the job of entities like the Pawikan Conservation
Center to make sure the eggs are safe from human poachers
so they can hatch after 40 to 60 days depending on
the temperature of the sand.
This is what we came to see: dozens of baby pawikan
flapping out to the sea where they will feed and grow
and instinctively return to the beach where they were
hatched after 25 years when they are ready to lay their
own eggs.
There are threats all throughout the life of the turtles.
Adult female turtles are hunted and killed in their
nesting beaches when they come during nesting season.
Their meat serve as food for communities while their
shells and skin are used for many illegal by-products
like comb, guitars and other adornment
The eggs, on the other hand, are gathered and sold
in the black market where they command high prices
because of misconceived aphrodisiac effects.
If the eggs are hatched, the baby turtles commonly
fall prey to birds, crabs, big fish and many other
predators with only 1 to 3 percent of the turtles reaching
maturity. That is why Bataan community organization
in Morong named Bantay Pawikan Inc. that started the
first community-based conservation program of marine
turtles with the help of United Nations Development
Programme and the provincial government in 1999. Soon
other communities and groups in neighboring towns replicated
the conservation work.
The efforts now collectively contribute to the protection
of nesting turtles, collection and hatching of eggs
and releasing of hatchlings to the sea.
– Anselmo V. Talagtag, Jr. |
