Malaysia to Clone Endangered Leatherback Turtles

The leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, has seen its population drop radically since the 1960s and is near the brink of extinction. Indigenous to Malaysia, they are about to have a last-ditch effort made on their behalf. The Malaysian government is about to spend $9 million on a cloning program to boost the population. If it succeeds, it will provide a model for the use of cloning to save other at-risk species. The trouble, though, is not with the science or ethics of such cloning but rather with the factors that caused the decline in the leatherback numbers in the first place.

Yesterday’s New Straits Times, the regional paper of record, reported that the five-year project will bring together Malaysian agricultural and veterinary experts with scientists in domestic and foreign universities. The first phase will be to develop a cloning technique that works for the abundant green turtles of Malaysia's northeastern state of Terengganu. Leatherbacks also live there, but they are a more complicated species to clone according to authorities. Junaidi Che Ayub, chief of Malaysia’s fisheries department, told the New Straits Times, “Once we have perfected the technique, we will apply it to leatherback turtles as they are a more complicated species in the turtle family.”

The Malaysian government deserves three cheers for trying to do something about the leatherback turtles. As a developing country, some may argue that the $9 million could be spent in better ways, but by the same token, Malaysia’s patrimony is, in large part, its environment. There will be commercial benefits to the nation if this succeeds. That $9 million is seed money for Malaysian bio-tech, which could keep well-educated Malaysians at home to the benefit of the entire nation rather than seeing them buy one-way tickets to more lucrative places with greater opportunities.

Increasing the number of turtles by cloning improves the chances of future generations being born. However, it does little to increase the genetic diversity of the species which is an important part of long-term survival. More turtles are a first step, but the real solution is, as the world has seen with the American Bald Eagle, to remove the environmental pressures that caused the drop in numbers. In the case of the leatherbacks, these are loss of nesting and feeding places due to human encroachment, excessive egg-collection by people, fatal entangling in fishing nets, and pollution.

Malaysia gets high marks here as well as it has started addressing the human effects. Egg-collecting is being replaced in some villages with hatchling protection jobs, paid for by the Fisheries Ministry. Also, the ministry is pushing for the adoption of “circle hooks” rather than “j-hooks” on fishing boats. Circle hooks will prevent the turtles from getting caught, unlike the j-hooks. In the long-run, it appears that enlightened government policy more than anything else can save the leatherbacks. If they vanish, it won’t be the end of the world. Then again, why not save them?

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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