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Lady of Lavelai slowly inches towards the sea after her rescue as chief David Dandava (left) watches with great satisfaction. |
‘LADY of LAVELAI’
By BIG PAT
The beach
at Lavelai is sandy and beautiful. The salt tanged sea breeze tickles your skin
and imagination.
The rustle
in the coconut palms is a sweet lullaby. Mixed with a special drink kulau
(coconut juice), a tonic for island freshness, it can make you drowsy. You
might doze off into distant dreams.
If you do
fall into that coconut wireless trance, you might hear a special story, a ‘tumbuna’
legend, a story mixed with the march of time and celebrating a unique sea
creature.
Lavelai is
a very special beach in this part of the world. The people of Buin live here on
the southern tip of Bougainville Island.
With a referendum
passed and talk of independence from Papua New Guinea increasingly obstinate, something
else has washed ashore in Lavelai. Something as ancient as the pebbles on the
beach that has caught international attention.
The local people
have a song and dance for this denizen of the depths of the Pacific Ocean. It
is one of the world’s great wonders, just as the giant whales and sharks that
dive deep into the clear blue waters, this one is an offshore traveler.
Because she
is such a monstrous beauty, let’s just call her the Lady of Lavelai. She is a
sea turtle of the highest order.
Lady of
Lavelai belongs to the Leatherback group, the world’s biggest turtles. Here is
where it becomes critical.
Lady of
Lavelai and all her wantoks (relatives) are getting fewer and fewer each year.
Hunting, poaching of its eggs, destruction of its nesting sites on island
shores, getting caught in fishing nets is the biggest threat to her family
group.
One diehard
wantok’ (relative or kinsman) of giant turtles is Wenceslaus Magun, a PNG
researcher, author and campaigner, who prides himself as the Turtle Man of Papua
New Guinea. He has recently authored a book – The Turtles Return.
Wenceslaus has donated two cartons of his books and posters to the Dandava clan at Lavelai as a Christmas gift for saving Lady of Lavelai.
Wenceslaus
has worked tirelessly over the past decade educating his people on the North
Coast of Papua New Guinea, particularly along the Madang coast and islands, on
conservation and preservation of the giant leatherback turtles.
When the Turtle Man heard of Lady Lavelai and the efforts of the local Dandava family of Bougainville to save her, he was ecstatic.
Wenceslaus, in thanking the wonderful people of
Lavelai, says that leatherback turtle numbers have significantly declined in
the Western Pacific.
He hailed
chiefs David Dandava and Sam Russel and their people as heroes to the cause of saving endangered
leatherback species of turtles.
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Chief David and his family attempt to flip over Lady of Lavelai. |
Especially school teacher Anne Lydia Dandava, who was alerted by her uncle Bana Zonga and found the trapped turtle and alerted her relatives to rescue and release Lady of Lavelai.
As Lady was humongous and too heavy to move, poachers had gone to bring reinforcements in the early morning, but Anne and Chief David and their team won the race.
Lady of Lavelai went from Christmas food pack to bearer of the next generations of leatherbacks.
Chiefs David and Russel are from the Lavelai area of Orava in Buin, South Bougainville.
The Lavelai beach
is unique, as it has no sloping gradient. Its flatness makes it ideal for
giants like the Lady of Lavelai to come ashore under the cover of darkness.
A huge girl
like Lady can lay a clutch of over 100 eggs. They say that a turtle always
returns to the beach where it was born. It is no surprise that Lady Lavelai has
returned to her home beach, where she once dug herself out of the sand and
clawed her way to the blue yonder.
The Fauna Protection Act of 1966/76 protects Leatherbacks but the fine for poachers of k40 for killing a turtle is laughable.
CEPA is supposed to police this act.
Wenceslaus wants district development authorities on the coasts and islands to fund turtle protection programs.
The Lavelai coastline faces Solomon Islands and Chief David Dandava has appealed to poachers who are threatening leatherback turtles to stop immediately.
Teacher Anne said since the rescue, some more turtles have come ashore at various spots.
Lavelai is a pretty sandy stretch of coastline from Tonolei Harbour to Laluai, Sari and Orava villages occupy a very small section of the Lavelai coastline.
Meanwhile Chief Russel said: “I now make a general appeal to whoever is endangering this unique species to please stop doing it for the sake of our environment and for that of our future generations.”
“The
leather back turtles come at the start of the year in January and then at the
end of the year in December to lay eggs here in our beautiful beach this very
unique it doesn’t happen in other places apart from us and other parts in the
world.
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Chief Dandava's wife Dinis ushers Lady of Lavelai over the last stretch to freedom. |
“This could
be a very nice tourist’s attraction or a conservation area because our area has
virgin jungle pristine streams and rivers which meet the sea and that is an
ideal place for these endangered turtles to roam around freely.
“I would
also like to appeal to the relevant authorities like fisheries, environment and
conservation to please come visit our areas now and make awareness; people are
doing this because they do not know about the importance of endangered species,
they need to know what is a leather back and what penalties will be imposed if
someone is caught killing a leather back turtle, they also need to know what are
the benefits of caring for endangered species.
“Just a
while ago some locals rescued a very big leather back turtle after it was
trapped and hidden in the bush by poachers, I would like to thank these hard-working
locals,” Chief Russel said.
Studies show that in 1980
there were over 115,000 adult female leatherbacks worldwide. Now there are less than 25,000 spread between the Indian Ocean
and the East and West Pacific Ocean.
The leatherback sea turtle,
sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth, is the
largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile,
reaching lengths of up to 2 metres and weights of 600 kg. It is the only living
species in the genus Dermochelys and family Dermochelyidae.
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| The three women who were instrumental in saving the lady turtles (l-r) Dinis Dandava, Neplyn Dandava and Matenas Sangi. |
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