Talang-Satang National Park

Talang-Satang National Park is Sarawak's first marine protected area. It covers an area of 19,414 hectares and was gazetted in 1999 to with the purpose to enhance marine turtle conservation in Sarawak. The Park encompasses the coastline and waters surrounding four islands which are Pulau Talang-Talang Besar and Pulau Talang-Talang Kecil (located off Sematan), and Pulau Satang Besar and Pulau Satang Kecil (located off Santubong). These small islands are surrounding by patches of shallow coral reef that provides shelter and resting grounds for sea turtle that come ashore to lay their eggs. Three of the island's park which are Talang-Talang Besar, Talang-Talang Kecil, and Satang Besar are also known as "Turtle Island". 

Turtle Conservation

Marine turtles face a number of threats that could affect their species. The threats that the turtles faces are entanglement in fishing nets, habitat destruction, water pollution, collection of turtle eggs, boat strikes, predation of eggs and hatchlings by birds, monitor lizards, civet cats, other wild and domestic animals, poaching for meat or shells, and also ingestion of marine debris such as plastic bags. Therefore, the state government carries out turtle conservation programmes in the park.

Releasing baby turtle to the sea

The Sarawak Forestry manages the national park and set up a number of hatcheries for the turtles. During the peak turtle nesting season which is from May to September, the park wardens monitor the beached for turtle landings. They remove the turtle eggs from the nests and place them in the hatcheries to avoid threats that could threatening the extinction of turtles. After 40 to 60 days of the turtle eggs incubation, the young hatchlings are released and scamper across the beach to the sea.

VISITING PULAU SATANG BESAR

Pulau Satang Besar

Pulau Satang Besar is the largest among the park's island. It is open to visitors and accessible by boat from Santubong or Damai Beach. The entrance fees and tickets to the park can be purchased on the island. There is a small information centre near the beach and visitors also able to view the turtle hatchery. The beach in Satang is known as one of the best beach in Sarawak and it is possible to snorkel on the nearby reef if there is good visibility. There are privately own chalets in Satang Island for visitors to stay overnight. 

VISITING PULAU TALANG BESAR

Sea Turtle Adoption Programme

Turtles take priority over tourists at Pulau Talang Besar, therefore access to the island is restricted to researches and national park staff. However, you can visit the island as a volunteer on Sarawak Forestry's Sea Turtle Adoption Programme. This volunteering allows volunteers to spend 4 days learning more about turtles and able to take part in a range of activities such as beach patrols to locate turtle landings, monitoring of nesting activities, tagging and measuring turtles, transferring eggs to the hatchery, releasing hatchlings, and also data recording. The volunteer programme is open during the peak turtle nesting season which is from May to September.