There are a number of community programs currently monitoring turtle nesting beaches throughout Australia. Cross collaboration between such programs is vital to ensure that monitoring is consistent and results contribute to the national and international knowledge of marine turtles.
Following are some case studies of communities that have implemented their own turtle monitoring programs.
Gnaraloo Station is situated adjacent to the Ningaloo Marine Park in the Ningaloo Coast National Heritage listed area. It has significant rookeries of endangered sea turtles, including the third most significant Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) breeding area in Western Australia. Gnaraloo commenced a turtle conservation program during 2008 to monitor and protect habitat, under the guidance and direction of the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and through engagement of scientific volunteers.
The Gnaraloo Turtle Conservation Program (GTCP) is based on the Ningaloo Turtle Program in Exmouth. DEC provides technical advice and training to the program while Gnaraloo undertakes and manages on-ground work from November to April, including track monitoring, species identification, nest counts, hatching success determination, hatchling counts and data collection on predation. The objectives of the GTCP include biodiversity protection, conservation of endangered marine species, protection of critical coastal nesting sites, community engagement, capacity building in volunteers and increasing awareness of conservation issues. Gnaraloo has also put in place a specialized fox control program to protect turtle nesting areas along its shores.
During 2009/10, 4 months of daily monitoring activities resulted in 522 successful nests being recorded, with nesting activity peaking during late January 2010. A sub-section of beach was monitored nightly for 4 months later during the season to determine hatching success percentage and predation pressures. During this time, 44 nests with 1547 hatchlings were observed to hatch in the sub-section. A total of 1126 of these hatchlings reached the ocean successfully, with 190 being predated by crabs and foxes. The fate of 231 of these hatchlings were not known.
The GTCP will be expanded to allow community volunteers to participate with the research effort during the 2010/11 breeding season. The program will be undertaken during 2010/11 through financial assistance from the Gnaraloo leaseholder and the Australian Government.
The Care for Hedland Environmental Association, Flatback turtle monitoring program began in October 2004 through the assistance of WWF and the Ningaloo Turtle Program.
The Program is conducted from November to March each season and uses a track monitoring method that allows for the recording and marking of successful nesting attempts, as well as the recording of potential disturbance to nests such as vehicles, fox predation.
The non-invasive nature of the monitoring allows for a high level of community involvement from school aged children to adults.
During the 2007/08 turtle nesting season, the Port Hedland turtle monitoring program attracted 68 volunteers who contributed over 1,135 hours of work to the program. Over 1,300 nests were identified on nesting beaches and almost 800 false crawls were counted.
West Pilbara Turtle Program (Cape Lambert/Wickham Back Beaches)
The West Pilbara Turtle Program (WPTP) has been operating along the beaches of Cape Lambert and Wickham for six years.
The program, funded by Rio Tinto and assisted by Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC), was formally established as a partnership in 2005 to support a local community program which had been active since 2003.
Under the program, local community members monitor Cape Lambert and Wickham beaches during turtle nesting and hatching season (October – March). This includes two beaches within Rio Tinto’s lease area. All volunteers complete a training program, devised by the Ningaloo Turtle Program, and conduct daily monitoring of turtle nesting activity. This involves identifying the species of turtle from tracks left in the sand, determining successful nests and non-nesting emergences (false crawls), identifying feral predation and monitoring hatchling emergences.
The Cape Lambert/ Wickham nesting beaches are predominantly used by Flatback turtles, however Green and Hawksbill turtles are sometimes recorded. Over the past two monitoring seasons (2009-2011) only Flatback turtles were seen. In 2009-10 a total of 167 nests were recorded. In 2010-11 season 83 nests were recorded.
WPTP brings together industry, government and the community to monitor marine turtle nesting in the West Pilbara area and raises awareness on the importance of these beaches for marine turtle conservation. To date the partnership has indicated that informative data on turtle monitoring can be gained by community volunteers, and that considerable community spirit is generated as a result.
Broome & One Arm Point
After a desire to make more Broome locals aware of nesting marine turtles on Cable Beach, Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) in Broome instigated the first year of a community turtle monitoring program during the 2006/07 Flatback nesting season. After training with the Ningaloo Turtle Program in Exmouth, Kelly Howlett of Care for Hedland helped train interested volunteers in the Broome region. Volunteers were taught track monitoring techniques, data collection and correct interaction protocols for marine turtles.
The monitoring beach was divided into 3 sections; Minyirr, Dabadabakun and Billingur. Daily monitoring commenced with the 30 local volunteers collecting their CVA patrol bag and walking along their designated section of coast. Leslie Baird (Chelonia Wildlife Rehabilitation & Release) was on call in case of any stranded or injured turtles.
Social community BBQ’s were held throughout the season culminating in a thank you night with the presentation of certificates and trophies. During the 2006/07 season, 20 nests were recorded on Cable Beach, all of which were Flatback turtles. The program during 2007/08 followed a similar evolution with 56 Flatback nests recorded on Cable Beach.
The Broome community remains supportive of community turtle monitoring program run by CVA which operates with the support of the local Rubibi indigenous community and the Kimberley Land Council.
