53) A Herd of Turtles for Christmas

So what does one do for Christmas in OZ?

Go herd Turtles!!!

Really!!!

We have headed N to Mon Repos Turtle Rookery, a Queensland conservation area and research lab. It is run by Dr. Cole Limpus, who has been researching marine turtles since 1968 (he is a nuclear physicist in a former life). The 22 km section of coast here is the nesting ground for 50% of the eastern population of of marine turtles. We have been here three days – we are now vampires – starting work at dark and going through to dawn (2 different shifts). We walk the beach to insure we see and record every turtle that comes ashore. – check to see if she lays eggs, mark the spot, get tag numbers (or apply them if she is a new turtle), get measurements, sometimes relocate nests if it is in a spot subject to erosion.

The marine turtle population here is listed as endangered – The most common Loggerhead has seen a 70% decline in population in 1 generation. The endemic Flatbacks are only 4% of the turtles nesting here – also a huge population drop. Mostly due to killing by humans, destruction of nests by feral pigs and foxes and massive kills in prawn nets (though that has been almost eliminated by the introduction of TEDS--turtle exclusion devices in AU fishing fleets – but not Indonesian fleets). A major problem is coastal lights from shopping malls, houses, car lots. The light attracts the turtles and confuses the hatchlings to the point that they will actually head away from the ocean when they hatch. Nesting has dramatically shifted away from formerly good beaches near town to ‘dark’ beaches that have much less successful hatches due to thin sand conditions. The other new problem is ghost nets – kilometer long nets that have been abandoned or lost but still drift through the ocean entangling fish and turtles. On the West coast of QLD, cyclones will wash nets ashore with dozens of entangled turtles.

We are about 50% of the way through the nesting season and Mon Repos has seen over 200 nesting tutles including a few of the unusual Greenbacks. We have been lucky enough to see 2 Flatbacks – they get the whole treatment – weighing, egg counting and measuring, laproscopy – all in sight of the guided tour groups who come here to see the turtles come ashore and nest. We have had three nights with the maximum number (300 people) who will be taken out in small groups. The little kids love getting to help move eggs from the precariously placed nests to safer areas. Good future conservationists!

So every night we walk the beach in the dark – when a turtle comes ashore you stop dead and wait till she gets up in the dunes. In 30-45 minutes she has dug an egg chamber and started laying up to 130 eggs. At this point they are pretty settled and we can turn on lights and start recording all the data. Come morning, we do data entry into the database, try and sleep in the heat, go for a swim. We still have places to explore – some kayaking to do, maybe get the kite out if the wind comes up.

Come dark – we are out again, doing what we can to help save these amazing creatures – so lumbering on land, such graceful swimmers in the water.











We will post more pictures later - we are on a really slow Internet Cafe connection that keeps collapsing on the uploads. Stay tuned!