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Where Turtles Feed - Rugose Reefs

One of the fundamental needs for a foraging sea turtle is, quite obviously, food. Plenty of nutritional food. Sea turtles eat a wide variety of foods across various habitats, across different species and across different stages of their lifecycle within a species. In this context I am specifically talking about things that sea turtles will eat on reefs above 20m. In New South Wales this is where you can see green and hawksbill turtles feeding and loggerheads less frequently at the greater depths. Without performing gastric lavage (a scientific method of stomach pumping to determine diet) I can't confirm what exactly they are eating at this point in time. What is more interesting is how long sea turtles are spending in these foraging areas and whether we have adequately identified and protected areas that are identified as suitable habitat. They are threatened species after all. One of the suitable habitat variables I'm looking at this week is reef rugosity. I'm expecting a pretty wide range on this variable for suitable foraging habitat for sea turtles. The tricky part if finding the boundaries, when is a reef not a reef?

Rugosity alone cannot make that determination, but it is a valuable indicator of diversity.Reef rugosity describes the structural complexity of a reef area and is a fundamental ecological property of reef communities. The plants and animals that sea turtles feed on need a structurally complex system to survive. No rugosity, no food, no turtles. To gauge just how rugose an area is there are a number of methods being used these days. The most recently developed rugosity measure is a novel digital method to parameterize the structural complexity (rugosity) of coral reefs using a robust, off-the-shelf recording submersible pressure gauge. Preliminary data suggest a positive relationship between digital reef rugosity and fish diversity across a number of different habitats on shallow water Balinese coral reefs, I predict a similarly positive relationship between foraging sea turtles and reef rugosity, as one of many influencing environmental factor. Proving this will increase the confidence levels of predicting foraging turtle populations in uncharted waters.

The effects of climate change are not felt evenly or equally around the globe. South East Australia is predicted to be a hot spot for climate change over the next 100 years and the impacts of small changes in climate variable can have wide-ranging impacts. The variable discussed today for example, rugosity, can be negatively affected. Increased storm activity at sea can produce damaging waves which erode and sometimes bury reef structures. Increased rain also causes higher levels of turbidity across inshore reefs decreasing suitability for plant growth. The slightest change in temperature may force organisms out of one area that has become too hot, but may drive them to other areas nearby which are more suitable. When we're talking about the southern extent of foraging sea turtles on earth will climate variables drive a wave of phase shifting that takes turtles with it? How far south can they go?

Turtles in the South

Spring has most definitely sprung and Australians are cowering behind jacarandas all over the country dodging the marauding magpies. I have just returned from my spring field surveys in the Lord Howe Island Marine Park where the usual greens and hawksbill turtles were seen cruising around the magnificent reefs. Sooty terns were nesting in the sand dunes and if you're lucky enough to spend the twilight hours by the water, shearwaters can be seen flying in like air force bombers, ducking and weaving through the palm trees into the burrows for the night.

Just add beer.

During the day, sunshine beams into the blue lagoon making visibility difficult to measure. I cut it off at 10+ metres most surveys because I don't have measuring tape long enough to give you the truth. The crystal clear water makes it easy to see right across the reef.

I'm hunting around these reef for turtles. While 95% of turtle researchers are bobbing around tropical waters, I'm suited up to discover what's going on at the southern extremes of turtle distributions on the east coast of Australia. Lord Howe Island is home to the world's southern-most barrier reef. Providing all the necessary requirements for turtle foraging habitat. It's even exposed to ocean currents that bring the turtles to the island. As a potential turtle foraging site, it's checking all the boxes. Which was already a given considering human records of turtles at the island that date back to 1788. However, there are inherent errors in human memories which prompt the need for methodical surveys, and there are also other reefs in temperate zones which have never been surveyed and have no records. If we know all the variables that make a habitat suitable, can we predict how many turtles are on reefs never before surveyed? Or koalas in forests never before surveyed? Maybe, just maybe there is a tool that could be developed to help with that.

Range Slider

Australian Charities... the hell of staying operational

As many of my readers will know, I’ve been in the charity game for a long time as a volunteer and an employee. As the general manager of a charity for seven years or so, I saw pretty much every piece of paperwork that the organization needed to maintain to keep operating. I also saw it increase over time, difficulties caused by forever changing government departments or employees in those roles, political footballs and corruption, you name it, it’s in Australia.

A few years ago I was reading an article about the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission and how their new strategies were going to cut red tape for charities and make life easier. I was pretty excited; this was something that could really help. I signed up for the emails and put my name down to participate in discussions. I didn’t have the time really but this might actually pay off for the charity down the track so it was worth the investment for the sustainability of the organisation.

I duly logged on at the right time for the live facebook chat with the ACNC, outpoured my heart about the difficulties of running a charity in this day and age and how the responsibilities being put on the charity were actually costing the charity thousands of dollars in bookkeeping and legal fees and things were only increasing. How it would be so much easier if our charity could bundle up all our legislative requirements into one easy website or something. The demands on the volunteer treasurer were incredible. The demands on the management were so much that we were forced to hire a full-time manager. Attempts to find more volunteers to take on management roles was AND STILL IS futile because of this.

So the ACNC came up with the following… well it’s not a solution, it’s an Annual Information Statement that all charities now have to provide, or lose their charity status. You may call it regulation, I call it blackmail, here’s why. The sentiment is essentially this “We understand you need to report a lot, could you report how much you report so we can understand how much everyone is reporting? By the way, if you don’t report, even if you don't have the resources to do so, we will revoke your charity status.” Let’s have a closer look at what they're asking for.

The information that the ACNC is requesting that charities provide in their Annual Information Statement is more or less a summary of the reports that the charity has already had to provide in that year to other government agencies. I would like to emphasise here “ALREADY HAD TO PROVIDE”. This means that under an inordinately long list of regulatory requirements, charities have to provide annual reports, statements, fees or otherwise to an ever-growing list of government agencies to maintain licenses, permits and other regulated operating documentation. You can’t just walk out your door and rescue, rehabilitate and release wildlife you know. So all the information, bar a couple of minor questions about ‘how many hours do you spend reporting’ are actually already given to the government via other agencies, like the ATO. But instead of the ACNC finding their own resources to get that information for themselves, they are forcing VOLUNTEERS in already administratively overloaded charities to go back over their work throughout the year, duplicate all their efforts, results and reports for the ACNC, OR SHUT DOWN. They are the options for a charity in Australia these days. And I say THESE days because it’s progressively getting worse.

Besides the fact that the majority of charities wouldn’t exist if the government was actually capable of doing its job, in this case said charities are left with a foul taste in their mouths and back-hand from those who are supposed to help them. Only they're too afraid to say so. You see, if the charity does not complete the ACNCs annual statement, they have their charity status revoked.

Having had all my comments sidestepped or ignored on the live facebook chat (which no doubt the ACNC chalked up as ‘community consultation’ pfffft) I had a squeal on twitter. Within minutes I had a message from the ACNC ‘We’d like to call you and talk, please provide your phone number”. SURE! HERE IT IS!! An hour or so later my phone rang “Yes, this is the ACNC, how can we help you?”. I said everything again to an entry level call-assistant who clearly had no idea what I was talking about. 'I'm sorry, I know I sound really emotional about this, I'm not directing this at you personally, but the ACNC aren't listening!!'. Still nothing. Then just today David Locke, ACNC Assistant Commissioner posted on his twitter page a story from India that told of how 90% of charities there did not submit an annual information statement. I replied "I wonder if all of them lost their charity staus. #blackmail". To which David Locke said to me, “What a ridiculous statement”. David then blocked me when I put forward my argument. Thanks for reaching out buddy! CAN'T BLOCK ME HERE!!!

Actually it’s not ridiculous David Locke, or Commissioner Susan Pascoe who also refuses to address my contact. It’s what just happened this year. http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2015/03/acnc-revokes-1300-charities

So, big thanks to the ACNC for making our charity work that much more difficult by inventing not only a new annual report to add to our list which duplicates almost every report we already do, but by threatening to close us down if we don’t do it.

Enjoy the wildlife, that a charity you tried to shut down probably saved.

Returned from the Deep Blue, with turtle news!

I was abducted by aliens, but I'm back!

It really is dangerous to stop writing, the longer I don't write the harder it is to know where to pick up from, or what to rant about next, I have a very long list of blog ideas... but here I go, dive on in...

I've been travelling around the east coast of Australia soaking up as much as there is to learn about sea turtles in the state of New South Wales (NSW). The results are fascinating. Not only are there records dating back to 1788 of resident sea turtles foraging in NSW, but during the multiple in-water surveys I have conducted across marine parks in NSW over the last 18 months have revealed happy, healthy foraging turtles in every site where suitable habitat was previously predicted and/or ground-truthed. What a mouthful of explanation we have to give everything now. But it's important to be precise. I cannot think of an estuary or reef in NSW waters that would not be suitable for foraging sea turtles, but I am forced to put geographic parameters on my study and realise the limited hours in the day, so for now I'm especially looking in marine parks.

Confirming the length of a young Hawksbill at Ned's Beach, Lord Howe Island

To date I've been surveying in the Cape Byron Marine Park and the Lord Howe Island Marine Park. Both have yielded fascinating results in terms of both cultural history and sightings of sea turtles. I'm hoping to add into the mix third marine park, Batemans, which is home to Montague Island on the southern coast of NSW. Reports confirm a number of recurrent sightings in this park and the influence of crowd-sourced data can be seen through sightings logged via sites like Redmap www.redmap.org.au or the Atlas of NSW Wildlife.

An old friend at Old Settlement Bay, Lord Howe Island

In the grand scheme of things I hope this research will fill gaps in our understanding of the species composition and size class of sea turtles in NSW, how and why they are using the habitat and if that habitat is being adequately protected. We traditionally associate sea turtles with the northern states, but even Victoria is making claim as home to the species as well. One sea turtle that was brought into rehabilitation in southern Australia was genetically traced back to Oman. I can't tell you yet where the sea turtles found in NSW are genetically traced back to. These animals have amazing stories to tell us and there are so many reasons why we should be listening more intently.

Happy green sea turtle at Ned's Beach, Lord Howe Island