Sarawak’s first marine national park, Talang-Satang was established with the primary aim of conserving Sarawak’s marine turtle population. The park comprises the coastline and sea surrounding four islands of the southwest coast of Sarawak; Pulau Talang Besar (Greater Talang Island) and Pulau Talang Kecil (Lesser Talang Island) off Sematan, and Pulau Satang Besar (Greater Satang Island) and Pulau Satang Kecil (Lesser Satang Island) off Santubong, near Kuching. These four “Turtle Islands” are responsible for 95% of all the turtle landings in Sarawak. The park also includes the Pulau Tukong Ara-Banun Wildlife Sanctuary, two tiny islets which are important nesting sites for colonies of Bridled Terns and Black-Naped Terns.
Talang-Satang National Park covers a total area of approximately 19,400 hectares (19.4 sq km), and comprises all lands below the high tide marks on the respective islands, and the surrounding seas for a radius of 4.8 km from the highest point on each island. Beautiful shallow reef areas surround all the four islands. The reefs generally consist of several species of hard coral and colonies of soft coral. They provide shelter and resting grounds for sea turtles, and are also important fish breeding areas.
Over 2000 concrete reef-balls have been placed in the waters of the National Park. These artificial reef balls not only provide a ready made habitat for coral species; they also provide inter-nesting shelters for turtles; The reef balls’ rough and heavy concrete construction will rip fishing nets to shreds, and therefore prevents encroachment by trawlers. It is difficult to determine exactly what difference they make to actual numbers of landings, but since the introduction of reef-balls the number of dead turtles found in Talang-Satang has decreased dramatically.
The conservation programme has been carefully planned to involve local communities. The traditional rights and practices of the local landowners, villagers, and fishermen are recognized, and Sarawak Forestry works in close co-operation with them to ensure sustainable usage of the resources they are entitled to.
