The Turtle Eggs

I captured glimpses of these un-hatched babies during one of the research projects conducted by Haw on heavy metal content in Hawksbill Turtle eggs of Malacca Straits.


unknown deformities found upon opening one of the turtle eggs


the late stage of a fully-formed baby turtle joined to the yolk


look closer... this is an image of a baby turtle without both eyes


another fully developed baby turtle seen here with prominent features


a dehydrated baby where part of the skin were left attached to the egg shell

What really happened to these eggs from Padang Kemunting Beach, Malacca which happened to be one of the hot spots for turtle nesting? Straits of Malacca is one of the busiest sailing route that entitles a number of ships and boats to pass through leading to accumulating pollution effects.

With global climate on the stake, the condition most optimum for their existence are hence, doubted.

Is this a sign of turtle's extinction in Malaysia?

It is not one or two of these un-hatched turtle eggs showed such heart-wrenching features characteristics, but quite an amount of them.

Not much studies performed on turtle eggs but, I've come to learn that the above phenomenon could be due to the eggs handling method, predation by ants and maggots, environmental factor - i.e. sand conditions, humidity, temperature, nutrient encouraging fungus growth, seawater pollution (heavy metal, hydrocarbon) etc.

So, do you think the turtle eggs are still safe to be consumed?

After all, you don't know what it contains inside......