KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS Coming up for air: This 1993 file photograph shows the Hoan Kiem turtle in Hanoi, Vietnam. The legendary Hoan Kiem turtle should be making one of its rare appearances soon. Experts fear that it could be one of the last.

Legendary turtle should be making
one of its rare appearances soon

BY MARK MCDONALD
Knight Ridder Newspapers

HANOI, Vietnam — It could happen any morning now.

It probably will be cool and overcast, with a breeze out of the northeast and maybe a light rain falling. There, out on Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the Vietnamese capital, breaking the surface — a snout will appear.

Then maybe a brief flash of shell, and perhaps a flirtation of flipper.

The legendary Hoan Kiem turtle should be making one of its rare appearances soon, as the weather cools, and experts are afraid it could be one of the last times the mysterious reptile comes up for air.

"This turtle is a fascinating phenomenon, probably the biggest soft-shell in the world and certainly the most endangered," said Peter Pritchard, a renowned turtle biologist. "People in Vietnam are treating it like the Loch Ness monster, but this is not a myth. People need to treat it like a biological thing — an endangered species."

Many Vietnamese, however, don't believe the 6-foot, pink-bellied, green-shelled turtles exist. They think it's merely a bit of urban folklore, a tall tale for tourists.

The story goes that Le Loi, a warrior king, used a heaven-sent sword to hold off some Chinese invaders back in the mid-1400s. After the final battle, as Le Loi was boating in Hanoi, his sword leaped from its scabbard and into the mouth of a turtle. The turtle plunged underwater with the sword, never to be seen again, and the lake has been known as Ho Hoan Kiem ever since — the Lake of the Returned Sword.

Dr. Ha Dinh Duc, Vietnam's leading turtle expert, believes the turtle that made off with Le Loi's sword is still living in the lake. That would make it about 550 years old.

"Yes, that's right, the same turtle," said Duc, 56, a biology professor at Hanoi National University who has studied the Hoan Kiem turtles since 1991. "Some scientists don't believe a turtle could live this long, especially in a lake so small and with so many people around, but I think so."

Hoan Kiem Lake is small and shallow — two football fields wide, six fields long and about 7 feet deep at its deepest point. It appears to be more bog than lake, a kind of steaming green puddle. Pritchard said that although the lake is badly polluted, the turtles conceivably could live underwater indefinitely, coming to the surface only for an occasional gulp of air or a bit of sun.

"They probably eat anything," said Pritchard, author of the definitive "Encyclopedia of Turtles."

"Mostly fish. Even dead fish. Even stinky fish."

A live Hoan Kiem turtle has never been captured, and the Vietnamese government has issued a decree banning any attempt to catch one.

An impassioned letter from Duc to former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet halted an attempt to dredge the lake in 1993. Earlier that year, three scuba divers spent four hours underwater, scouting for turtles.

"They found nothing," Duc said, smiling from behind his smudged spectacles. "People here believe the turtle is sacred. They think only crazy people would want to catch one."

Duc and Pritchard, however, believe the huge turtles could be an entirely new freshwater species, one never before documented or studied. Their theory relies on their analysis of a few photographs that show the shape of the turtle's head and shell.

There is only one known photo of the turtle entirely out of the water, and the scientists point to it as the best evidence that the Hoan Kiem turtles are built quite differently from their supposed next of kin, Pelochelys bibroni and Rafetus swinhoei. While a big Pelochelys or Rafetus can weigh in at 220 pounds, Duc figures the Hoan Kiem turtles weigh 400 pounds or more.

Neither Duc nor the other turtle savants who have studied the lake know how many big turtles are there, although Duc and Pritchard believe there could be no more than five.

"I think it's pretty clear they aren't reproducing," said Pritchard, who compares Hoan Kiem to an old-age home for the turtles. "My inclination is that they're doomed."

The turtles, Pritchard said, are threatened by municipal "improvements" around the lake, which are a major attraction for tourists and Hanoians alike. The earthen banks have been almost entirely cemented over, leaving only a few yards of rocky beach where a turtle might find a place to bury her clutches of 100 or more eggs.

"A beast that big can't go clambering over rocks to lay its eggs," fumed Pritchard, who is outraged that officials have failed to protect what he calls "part of Vietnam's national patrimony."