Donating to Save Sea Turtles Has Never Been Easier!



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If we don't know how many turtles are out there, we can't really protect them. How many are there? Which species? What ages? Are New South Wales turtles migrants from the Great Barrier Reef or wider in the Pacific? Where are their nesting beaches? This is important to me also because I've watched enough turtles die from issues like marine plastic debris ingestion to want to understand more about the species being affected in my backyard.

 I'm a Higher Degree Researcher with James Cook University studying sea turtles in the magnificently biodiverse Cape Byron and Lord Howe Island Marine Parks in New South Wales, Australia. I also help out a bit around the Australian Seabird Rescue Sea Turtle Hospital in Ballina.  
Sea turtles have faced many challenges including harvesting and habitat disturbance throughout history and despite being flagged multiple times as a high priority, baselines studies of abundance and distribution in NSW have been extremely limited.

This baseline information is fundamental to detect change and mitigate disaster, contributing to the protection and conservation of the vulnerable green (Chelonia mydas) and endangered hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) sea turtles that exist across temperate reefs in this Pacific region at one or more stages of their life history. They're also extremely likeable animals! 
Visual surveys and satellite tracking will give us the data we need and I'm (almost) ready for the challenge! Attaching a satellite tracker is a proven method to help us understand how individuals interact in the parks and during migration across the wider South Pacific. A satellite tracker with a depth sensor, critical to understanding habitat use in a 3-dimensional seascape, costs around AUD$5,500 a piece (ouch!). Fund one entire tracker and you can name your sea turtle! Data uploads publicly to a website daily, like this one did. It's very exciting to watch, connecting local communities directly to their marine wildlife LIVE!

Each sea turtle surveyed visually or by satellite tracking reveals critical information through its spatial location, species, behaviour, size and condition. Satellite tracking will contribute an immense amount of knowledge needed to fill gaps in our understanding of - and advocate for - conservation and protection of these threatened species and their habitat. 

Budget:
Travel SYD (or BNE) to LHI Study Site
6 x return flights @ $1,000ea = $6,000

Satellite tracking devices
14 x satellite tracking devices @ $5,500ea = $77,000

Total: $83,000

In the meantime, I'll be continuing to undertake visual sea turtle surveys of sea turtles at four sites (two sanctuary and two non--sanctuary zones) within the Cape Byron and Lord Howe Island Marine Parks. I'll also be looking for any of the over-400 sea turtles that have been flipper tagged in NSW already. I've spotted a few already!

With many thanks to James Cook University, NSW Marine Parks Authority, the Lord Howe Island Board Research Facility, Byron Bay Dive Centre, the LHI tour operators and the locals for offering me so much logistical assistance in getting me around the marine parks.

Below are links to some media stories. Thank you for your support!! 

So You Want to Start Your Own Foundation.... DON'T

Short answer, don't. 

Here is a list of ten reasons why you should NOT consider starting your own charitable organisation, environmental or otherwise, instead of joining one that already exists.

1. Administrative burden. Unless you're going it alone, you're going to need to register your organisation if you want to do business, safely involve members, handle money or deal with the public. You're going to need to know, meet and stay tuned into legislation, standards and report regularly to government agencies. An established group would already have this framework in place. 

2. Redundancy. There are around 600,000 registered charities in Australia alone. Surely you can find one to work with.

3. Competitiveness. Starting a new charitable foundation makes it more difficult for existing organisations to compete for funding, and starting up as a newbie no one has ever heard of in an existing charitable industry puts you on the back-foot from day one. 

4. Brand building. If you're trying to do something charitable it will take time to build a reputation. Other groups have already achieved this. Use their brand power instead of wasting effort building your own.

5. Arrogance. Are you sure that no one else is doing what you intend to do? Have you researched this and spoken to the agencies already established? I recently heard someone from a new charity introduce himself as "We do ALL the work on marine debris". I had to walk away biting my tongue, this was untrue and a sign of some serious narcissism. 

5. Your Ego. If you're still convinced that there is not a single other organisation with a structure that you could work with, you might want to check your ego. Are you being a control freak? Adaptability is the key to success.

6. The value of collaboration. Collaborating with existing groups demonstrates two things, you can cooperate with others and you recognise the value of the history those groups have established.

7. Life balance. If you think you can do this in your spare time, you're crazy. Don't fall into the trap of thinking 'if no one else is going to do it, the I'll have to.' This attitude and project management, is not sustainable for you personally, or the charity you're working with. .

8. Wanting to create a legacy. This is a very noble idea, but really, legacies are never planned.

9. Wanting the title "Director" or "Founder". Yeah well, in my opinion there has been so many jugheads starting their own foundations that both of these titles now sound ridiculous and make me chuckle a bit.

10. Your exit strategy. Starting a new venture can be fun and exciting, doing it without preparing an exit strategy for either you personally, or the organisation as a whole, will ensure your dream is short-lived.

Happy Mothers Day


I love you Mum!

The Sea Turtles of Lord Howe Island


Sticking up out of the sea, a short flight from Sydney, is one of Australia’s best kept secrets, Lord Howe Island. Emerald green forests drape rocky mountains overshadowing turquoise lagoons and bays of Earth’s southernmost coral reef. Providence Petrels, all 40,000 breeding pairs, can be heard calling and seen in courting displays of aerial acrobatics, buzzing around the mountain tops like flies. This truly is a paradise of unimaginable beauty.



As part of my Masters degree research, I’ve come to check out the sea turtles, if there are any. I had heard some reports of sightings at Lord Howe Island and read some pretty interesting reports about satellite tracking loggerhead turtles that were released here, but there doesn’t seem to be much by way of modern research.

Steeped in history dating back to the island’s discovery in 1788, many of the ships captains recorded details about sea turtles in the lagoon of Lord Howe Island. Although sea turtle never made the menu for Lord Howe Island locals, it seemed commonplace for whaling and trade ships to collect turtle from the lagoon, 20 – 30 at any one time. The turtles would be kept live on deck and transported to the first settlement in Port Jackson and also to Norfolk Island. The whaling trade came to an end and the increasing local settlement became skilled at farming pig and goat, the taking of turtles from the island appears to have ceased in the early 1900’s.

Joyce Petherick, born 1921, recalls swimming across the lagoon as a young girl and her observations were echoed through the older community, seeing a sea turtle was an exciting surprise, not a daily occurrence. Fast-forward to 2014 and now there are multiple daily glass-bottom boat turtle tours operated throughout the lagoon. I jumped onboard and let the locals show me where the turtles are. Within minutes I was hovering over greens and hawksbills comfortably going about their business. Another scuba-diving local pointed out that he had never seen a loggerhead turtle there before, until just a few months ago he sighted an adult at Yellow Rock at a depth of around 16m.



As word got around the island about who I am and why I was there, I came into possession of two hawksbill turtle carcasses that had beach-cast dead. For the purposes of determining the cause of death I conducted necropsies of both individuals. This was not pretty. They both presented almost identically in size and condition (and odour) and appeared to have starved to death. They were quite young and not unlike the 70 odd individuals beach-cast dead in northern NSW only a couple of years ago, interesting. Victims of ontogenetic shift mortality? I collected DNA and it may be possible to correlate these with natal grounds known in the South Pacific, if I can find funding.


The Three Squeals

Just a wordy blog today due to the low visibility this week out in the Cape Byron Marine Park resulting in not a lot of fancy photos, but don’t be fooled, the thrills didn’t stop!

This week I buddy-ed up with a Ocean Ambassador Adrian Midwood to explore the shallows of Julian Rocks and explain exactly what my research is about. I find myself doing this a bit, explaining myself, so these days I tend to skip the jibber-jabber and get to the point of it all, by experiencing it.


As we set out over the 1 metre swell through The Pass with Byron Bay Dive Centre, the skipper Rob  sends out a call to the other dive boat skipper in the bay. “Where are the dolphins?” Within in minutes we were powering towards a small pod of the hundreds that live in the area. The skipper is careful to pull up well short, letting the two large and one gushingly-cute baby dolphin make their way past us. Squeal number 1 comes from a young European lady, who at this point I am guessing didn't grow up near the water like I have been lucky to. I smiled from ear to ear as I watched her almost bursting out of her skin with excitement “Oh my god!! They’re RIGHT THERE!!!!”. The crew scampered around to balance out the boat and give everyone the chance to see the magnificent mammals gliding past.

No more time to waste, we’re only halfway to our destination, but within minutes Adrian and I were over the side and making our way towards my beloved sea turtles to say hello. Not far behind us were another couple of tourists keen for the wildlife experience who had overheard why I was there. Naturally they figured following me was a sure-bet to see a sea turtle, and they weren’t disappointed. Within about five minutes, out of the 8-metre-visibility gloom came along a familiar green sea turtle to this part of the rock, gliding with the current along the vertical rock wall. Squeal number 2 comes from tag-along-tourist #1, “A SEA TURTLE!!!!”. I smile from ear to ear and pull the snorkel out of my mouth to turn to Adrian and say, “Did you hear that? That’s what I live for.” That moment of a purely joyful experience in nature. Hard to find working in a sea turtle hospital.


Two, three, four green sea turtle later I talk Adrian into venturing out into the stronger current to seek out some hawksbill turtles at “The Needles” in the shallow reef area surrounding the rocks. The rocky reef complex forms long sand-floored valleys and canyons abundant with marine life. I couldn’t see into the valleys today so I followed the shallowest ridge-lines along where I could see turtles feeding if there were any. Just as I was approaching the rise of the next ridge, the valley beyond came slowly into view and I came face to face with one of the most heart-stopping creatures of the sea. Squeal number 3 belonged to me and me alone and every second of it was filled with joy as I kicked slowly to try and remain motionless in the current in the company of a magnificent manta ray. Oh my goodness resisting the urge to touch it took everything I had. What an absolute honour that it was not afraid of me! Adrian and I hovered there while Rob the skipper ferried tourists over to us to share the experience. The squeals, they continued.


Good luck Demi - Hello K24268

It was with a heavy heart I clicked open my internet browser late in February and discovered that my first ever tracked sea turtle had stopped transmitting. What an adventure she had! From her tracks over the 189 days of transmission it appears that she spent little time (about 16 days) in NSW waters where she was released from rehabilitation, but then clearly made a bee-line to the Chesterfield reefs.


The Chesterfield archipelago is "right in the middle of precisely nowhere" as one savvy blogger put it, and a haven for seabirds... and maybe hawksbill sea turtles. After the grieving subsided I concluded that she had ended up in a pretty good place, as far from human impact as she could possible get in this puddle and the Chesterfield reefs have crept up my Bucket List. The video below shows some of the incredible life above the sea level and a fabulously squirmy scene where an eel eats a crab!



Back over on the western side of the ditch though, in the Cape Byron Marine Park, I ventured out today to do a sea turtle survey at Nguthungulli (Julian Rocks). The visibility had dropped to 10m (yes, I'm a spoilt brat), but the turtle action didn't disappoint. From the vessel my faithful buddy and I ventured along a transect along the mooring buoys seaward. I could only 'just' see the bottom but there were no turtles out there anyway. We ventured in towards the rocks and into the turtle trench where you're almost guaranteed a sighting. Sure enough I see a repeat customer making its way out of the bubbly haze. Medium-sized Green sea turtle, old barnacle scar on the fourth (posterior) costal scute, starboard side.



There was too much surge in there so we turned about and headed out to some of the rocky trenches, and there it was... the turtle everyone had been sighting but I had not seen myself, the hawksbill K24268! (I promise to find a new name, I also promise to be kind to those who accuse me of anthropomorphising). My heart nearly exploded! There they were, all three tags, a little grown over but I was able to zoom in for a confirming shot. Actually, I had to take a couple of shots because my first attempt at taking a clear shot of the tag in the 'armpit' of the right flipper was photobombed by a moon wrasse.


If one hawksbill wasn't enough excitement for the day, just over the rocky ledge on the other side of the cruising leopard sharks I ran into this beauty too. No tags it this fella though!



Schools of brightly coloured fish swarmed through the crevices flashing silvers, yellows and purples. The leopard sharks weren't sleeping on the bottom this time, they were cruising around the rocky shelfs freaking me out a little to be honest. Ha! In their place on the sandy floor were dozens of stingrays and on the rocky wall nearby a bright blue sea star was unmistakable. All in all another awesome snorkel in Byron Bay's local marine park!


 




Sponsored by Byron Bay Dive Centre



http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/demi-the-turtle-slips-tag/2192771/



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.









Nguthungulli - Julian Rocks and the Cape Byron Marine Park

"Nguthungulli" is the indigenous name used by the Arakwal people to describe a rocky outcrop sticking out of the bay we also know as Byron. You might know the rocks better as "Julian Rocks", as they were named by Captain Cook after his niece and nephew Juan and Julia. The rocky outcrop is the heart of the Cape Byron Marine Park and one of the few protected sites left for a variety of marine wildlife, most notably the endangered Grey Nurse Shark. 


The Grey Nurse Shark is a graceful and majestic creature to behold as it cruises through the rock valleys around the island, seemingly disinterested in the groups of oddly-shaped mammals with plastic fins that also cruise around at different times of the day. The wildlife out here is used to the attention and a long-upheld 'do not touch' policy has ensured everyone feels safer in the water. Many cases have been made that there has never been a shark attack on a beach where there is also shark-meshing and baited hook being used as protection measures. I put it to you that there has never been a shark attack in a marine park. Not that a Grey Nurse shark is likely to attack you, anyway. But I digress because as beautiful as these creatures are, they're not the ones I'm looking for.

The East Australian current was strong today, powering southwards from Queensland with magnificent warm, clear water with visibility so good that to mention it would surely be skyting. The current was hitting the side of the rocks head on and sweeping around the northern and southern ends of the rocks taking the weaker oddly-shaped mammals with plastic fins with it. The wildlife is diverse and prolific everywhere you look. Sting-rays, fishes of all shapes and sizes, leopard sharks nanna-napping on the seafloor and wobbegong sharks tucked away cryptically under rocks ledges, and I haven't even moved that far from from the boat yet.




But these beautiful marine creatures are not what I'm looking for here either. I'm looking for what the indigenous folk call "Bing-ing", sea turtles. Particularly Hawksbill sea turtles, but any species will do. Nguthungulli is in a very interesting part of the world, inherently biodiverse as it's influenced by both temperate and tropical climate variations. Let's say, hypothetically speaking, seas warm and we begin to notice that species more commonly seen in tropical waters become able to exploit this new extension of their habitats to the south. Given that Nguthungulli is right in that zone, monitoring it's abundance and diversity is key to our ability to protect and conserve this rich area for the future. We know now that sea turtles are resident in NSW. Take this Hawksbill turtle for example, who has popped up in sighting reports regularly since being tagged around 2002. The question is, how would we notice a change in the resident, or even migratory population if we don't know how many are there now? The fact is, we don't know how many are there now. Did I mention that Hawksbill turtles are critically endangered on a global scale? There I go again, tangentially swinging away from the story, let's get back in the water. 

The East Australian Current was warm and in the deep crevice in the middle of Nguthungulli the rocky walls were lined with a type of rhodophyta (red sea-grassy stuff) that was swaying back and forth with the swell like a pack of red-heads at a Metallica concert. When I got to the end of the valley I came face to face with three teenager green sea turtles frolicking at the surface in the surgy, bubbly, white-wash. They appeared to be making extra effort to access some of the red weed that was being exposed to the air, at some times taking some risk to get there. As teenagers do I guess.



 

And so, the counts begin!!


Demi's Tracks: Episode 2, Not From Here

Demi's Tracks: Episode 2, Not From Here

A few months back I released my first satellite tracked hawksbill sea turtle as part of my research through James Cook University. Ultimately I'm trying to find out about sea turtles in New South Wales, Australia, so as interesting as Demi's tracks are, they're not really addressing the aims of my research. It turns out that Demi the hawksbill, who seemed to know exactly where she was going, has traelled from her release site in Australia (where she was found near-dead) and has settled onto a reef complex about two thirds of the way to New Caledonia. It's very interesting and is the first time the volunteers at the turtle hospital have had the chance to hear about how a turtle they have successfully rehabilitated and released is faring. The only problem being that I'm trying to research the abundance and distribution of sea turtles in NSW and, well, apparently this one wasn't from NSW. There are a thousand questions about these turtles tracks (below), but they're going to have to wait.


In the meantime I've been looking pretty closely at the whole set of sea turtle event data collected by agencies in New South Wales. You might be surprised to know that there is currently no established link between data collected in NSW and data collected over that imaginary line in Queensland territory, but hopefully that will change sometime soon so we can get some perspective on the sick and dying turtles being washed up on the shores in the southeast. The abstract of the report and a few noteworthy graphs are below. I'll keep you up to date on publishing. Hmmm, publishing in journals... a sticky and somewhat archaic form of communicating with a handful of experts that serves to distract me from being in the water. Stay tuned!

A Review of Sea Turtle Events in New South Wales, Australia. 1989 – 2011.
R. Ferris
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.

Abstract. - All six species of sea turtle found in Australian waters have been found reported in waters off the southeastern state of New South Wales (NSW), however their status and distribution across this region remains under-described. Given predictions about climate and environmental change and their effects on turtle distribution and habitat a baseline for these species in NSW is required to compare future change against. Since 1989, agencies across the state have recorded events such as nesting or entanglements and annually reported this data to a central government database. This study aims to review and interpret the sea turtle event data collected over that time period. 1182 sea turtle events were reported in NSW since 1989. Sea turtle event reports increased over time with a majority (79%) of cases being individual sea turtles stranding with unknown causes of debilitation. Green (Chelonia mydas), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) turtles were regularly reported, most frequently towards the northern latitudes and during the Austral spring and summer. Further studies of healthy populations and influencing environmental factors, such as boundary currents and seasonal fluxes, are required to understand, manage and mitigate threats to sea turtles in NSW.

KEY WORDS. – Reptilia; Testudines; Chelonia; Caretta; Eretmochelys; sea turtle; New South Wales; conservation; threats; rehabilitation.






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