The Jakarta Post, Mon, 02/14/2011
A rare endangered giant leatherback sea turtle with a shell two meters in diameter and weighing hundreds of kilograms has been found in Langut lake, Bengkulu, an activist says.
Locally called penyu belimbing, the turtle was found on Sunday night at the turtle conservation area in Retak Ilir village, Muko-muko regency, Turtle Conservation secretary Khairul Amra said in Bengkulu on Monday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com news portal.
A total of 65 eggs thought to have been laid by the turtle were also found nearby, he said, in addition to 112 eggs previously discovered.
Khairul said that it was the third giant leatherback turtle that was found in the conservation area this month.
The turtles, which could live dozens of years, would be released to the sea while the eggs would be hatched, he said.
"It will be the first time for us to carry out the hatching process. Hopefully it will work," he said.
Local Natural Resources Conservation Agency head Amon Zamora said that he had not received any report about the findings but the agency would support efforts to hatch the eggs.
Leatherback turtles were a protected species at the brink of extinction, according to Amon.
