Hawksbill Turtles in New South Wales, Australia

Hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) are, in my humble opinion, the most beautiful sea turtle of all the species. The ocean reptiles have an intricate design of colour in their scutes (or scales you might call them) on their back which has made them a target for commercial harvesting, You see, the scutes polish up nicely and were (and still are) used to make some admittedly stunning jewellery, jewellery boxes, hair combs and the like. The product is also commonly known as 'bekko' and despite this species of sea turtle being listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List and also subject to a CITES agreement to ban trade, there are still a handful of countries still harvesting.

Now... I'm sympathetic towards the cultural economies of small island nations who wish to opt out of international conservation strategies, but I am concerned about our general lack of understanding of the Hawksbill life history all over the south-western Pacific. Slowly we are getting some picture about where they nest, even going so far as determining genetic profiles of various nesting sites, but beyond that, at this stage, any new information about their behaviour as they mature in our region needs a bit of investment to acquire.

There seems to be some long held opinions and notions about sea turtle ranges that just don't seem to fit with my observations in the wild. Take for example K24268, a Hawksbill turtle that appears to either be resident during this stage of its lifecycle, or regularly frequents the temperate reefs of the Cape Byron Marine Park. The turtle was tagged as part of an honours research project sometime around 2002 and the video below was acquired by a recreational diver showing the Hawksbill happily going about its normal foraging routine in October 2013.



Now, in the scientific world they call this 'anecdotal evidence' and argue that this one Hawksbill may just be an adventurous individual, but my gut feeling tells me differently. The excitement of this video evidence prompted me to trawl through every sighting recorded by the Byron Bay Dive Centre since 2009. Sure enough, it was also recorded in the Cape Byron Marine Park in 2009 and 2011, and is by no means the only tagged turtle to be repeatedly sighted in the area. My hypothesis is that sea turtles use the coastal waters off the northern rivers of NSW as foraging areas, nesting areas (although this appears limited at this point in history) and as a migratory pathway.

As a collaborative project between the NSW government and three licensed rehabilitation agencies, it is estimated that some 400+ turtles have been tagged and released in NSW waters. I need to find those tagged turtles and map the sightings to understand their movement. You can help! If you're diving or snorkeling in NSW and see a turtle, look for tags, get the tag numbers and send me the info!! Thank you!

With Special Thanks to the Byron Bay Dive Centre who are sponsoring this research.