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.
