50 Turtle Tails At The Mapak Indah Mataram Conservation Tourism Beveraged By Abrasi

Turtle breeding locations (Foto VIA ANTARA)

MATARAM - The Mapak Indah Turtle Lover Group in Mataram City, West Nusa Tenggara Province, said that the coastal abrasion that occurred on December 22, 2022, resulted in dozens of turtles being swept away by tidal waves. "The number of turtles that were washed away by abrasion was 50. Of the 50, three are adult turtles, while the rest are hatchlings," said Mahendra Irawan, chairman of the Mapak Indah Turtle Lovers Group in Mataram, as reported by Antara, Monday, January 9. The turtles that were swept away by the waves are types of scales, green, and lekang turtles which have been a vehicle for education for children who come to captivity locations on Mapak Indah Beach. "During 2022, the number of children who have come to educate and release turtles into the open sea is around 300-500 children. Before releasing turtles, our children educate how to maintain turtle habitat and produce," he said when met in the lobby of the Mataram Mayor's Office. As a result of the beach abrasion, Mahendra continued, who is also the Chair of the Supervisory Community Group and Tourism Awareness Group, buildings, road access and turtle conservation tourism facilities were badly damaged and washed away by the waves. Of the 10 turtle ponds we have, four ponds were washed away by the waves and three pools were moderately damaged because the roof was lost while the turtle eggs that could be saved were around 1,000 pills. "If you calculate the loss, for the building alone, the value is Rp. 100 million," he said. Related to that, his party hopes that the Mataram City Government can pay attention to turtle conservation tourism, because Mapak Indah is a Mataram City storefront other than Loang Baloq. "We have vision and mission tourism based on education conservation, economic empowerment based on coastal areas," he said. In addition to the damage to turtle conservation tourism, his party has also reported damage to 20 units of small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) at Mapak Indah Beach, which supports turtle tourism. The culinary stalls, which are the first start of Tanjung Bias, West Lombok Regency in Mapak Indah, have now run out of beach abrasion which hit the bottom of the stall up to a depth of 3-4 meters. "The total loss of MSME stalls is around Rp. 1.5 billion, because one stall with its own designs costs around Rp. 75 million," he said. Related to that, his party also hopes that the local government can provide the first solution or handling for MSME actors in Mapak Indah. "I am here (The Mataram Mayor's Office-ed) because I want to meet directly with the mayor, to find out the follow-up to the report that I had until last week," said Mahendra Irawan.