Another fisherman from the same village explained that it has become so common to see crocodiles swimming in the mangrove estuaries when they go out or come in from a fishing trip. “Before we rarely see these creatures anywhere; nowadays, however, they seem to be everywhere in the shallow waters outside the mangrove forests. They even come to the village dock, where children go to swim at high tides”, the fisherman said.
Villagers on the East Coast of Babeldaob (Despedall) have also reported that the number of CROCS in their areas seem to have increased greatly. They say that now that there are few outboard motor boats traveling along the coasts of Babeldaob because of expensive fuels, crocodiles seem to enjoy the waterways that were once full of speeding boats. Furthermore, they said, it is not unusual for someone in the village to regularly feed one or two wild crocodiles on a spot near his home.An East Coast villager who lives near the Ngerdorch estuary and who does not like crocodiles said: “This practice of feeding wild crocodiles may look interesting and exciting, but let us not forget that these are wild creatures that could turn vicious and dangerous to humans, particularly young children”. He explained that the large Ngerdorch Estuary that drains water from the Ngerdok Lake in Melekeok and from the hills and mountains in Ngchesar could turn into a killer zone if it becomes infested with wild crocodiles. “Conservation work for crocodiles is laudable, but we should also control the number of these wild creatures so that they would not become dangerous threats to our people”, the man said.While we are on the subject of protecting and controlling endemic animal species on our island, I would like to reproduce herein below what we said two years ago about the work our quarantine inspectors are doing to protect us from invasive foreign species.Quarantine Inspectors are doing good works “It was only a small female rat, but it had the Quarantine Office worried because it could spell big problems for the country. Thanks to the alertness of our quarantine inspectors who, through their professional expertise, detected the presence of the uninvited guest in a container van from Taiwan and were able to trap and destroy the pest before it escaped into the community and spread whatever diseases it may have been carrying. Although it had been destroyed, the presence of that rodent in a shipping container still has us worried”.These days when the entire world is worried about the spread of the Avian Flu and another deadly disease called SARS, our regulations prohibiting the importation of animals and birds from Asian countries are the correct approach for Palau. Regulations should also be developed to impose stiff penalties on shippers and recipients of imported goods whose shipping containers would be found housing banned materials, plants, insects, birds, and animals.
