Turtle Espionage: Beach Walkers Asked to Help Discover and Protect Nests

Loggerhead turtles make their way to the ocean, in North Miami, Florida, file photo. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Metres away from the Gold Coast’s built-up tourist strips, female turtles are engaging in a secret mission under cover of night to the sand dunes where they can safely lay and bury their eggs.

The journey, which happens every two to three years, sees the female turtles emerge from the ocean on warm summer nights up the beach in nesting quests to find the best spot to deposit their offspring. After locating a space, they dig, lay, and cover the nest before disappearing back into the sea.

Yet, despite the turtle’s secretive nesting practices, urban beaches feature distinctive risks, with the nests at risk of being eaten by dogs or other animals before hatching.  Additionally, the emerging baby turtles may be led away from the sea by artificial lights as turtles use the lowest light horizon to orientate towards the sea. All of this leads to a severe decline in the number of turtles.

But a partnership between the environmental charity Watergum and SeaWorld aims to change this by converting beach walkers into turtle spies, with walkers being called upon to help these eggs and baby animals remain safe by monitoring the beach for both mother and baby turtle tracks and reporting what they see.

The Chief Executive Officer of Watergum, Rosalinde Brinkman, said in an email to The Epoch Times that sea turtles have nested on Gold Coast beaches for hundreds of years, but because the Gold Coast is in the Southern range for nesting turtles, nesting events are not as common as they are at the main locations further North.

Brinkman noted that most turtles can still navigate the beaches, but development has destroyed the dune systems in some locations, and lighting is still the largest threat to nesting turtles on the Gold Coast. She noted that these problems might deter nesting turtles, who may choose beaches that are further North or South instead of those on the Gold Coast.

However, authorities can help turtles if they know where they are, and this is where Watergum is calling on beach walkers to monitor and report turtle tracks to help.

A vulture grabs a baby olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) in Ostional beach, in Ostional National Wildlife Refuge, some 300 km north of San Jose, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, on Dec. 1, 2010. Photo credit should read YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images

Identifying Turtle Tracks

Mother turtles leave behind distinctive tracks after nesting runs, and baby turtles leave tiny flipper marks as they leave their nest and make their way down to the sea.

Sea World marine scientist Siobhan Houlihan said in a Watergum YouTube video that sea turtle tracks could be quite difficult to identify, particularly when they aren’t fresh. Houlihan said that it’s much easier to locate nesting activities by identifying adult turtle tracks than it is with baby turtle tracks.

“Turtle tracks do not look like any other animal tracks, but they can be mistaken for vehicle tracks,” Brinkman said.

Brinkman noted that the biggest difference between vehicle and turtle tracks is that vehicle tracks are very symmetrical, and they will usually be running along the beach. She said that turtle tracks, on the other hand would be running up from the ocean into the dunes, and they will have another track next to the up track that leads back to the water.

Houlihan said that tracks could also be used to identify the species of the turtle.

She explained that loggerhead turtles crawl slightly differently than green turtles, using alternate strokes like a front crawl rather than all of their flippers like a breaststroke. She said that track width and the symmetry made by the front flippers as they imprint up and down the beach are the key features of turtle tracks that are helpful in identifying the species of a turtle.

A green turtle is held as marine turtle specialists prepare to release the more than 570 baby sea turtles, including the Loggerhead and Green turtles, into the Atlantic Ocean in a joint effort between the Coast Guard and the Gumbo-Limbo Nature Center on July 27, 2015 in Boca Raton, Florida. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Aims of the TurtleWatch Project

Emily Vincent from the Watergum charity told the Australian Associated Press (AAP) that the TurtleWatch program was started a few years ago and aims to identify turtle nests before they hatch.

“If walkers can spot turtle tracks before the tide washes them away, that means we can identify where nests are and give them a due date,” she said.

“And if we know the due date, we can make sure volunteers are there, around the clock, waiting for the turtles to hatch and ensure their safe journey down to the ocean.”

Turtle eggs typically have an incubation period of 60 days.

AAP also reported that Houlihan said there is a deficit of data on nesting frequency at Gold Coast beaches.

“We genuinely don’t know how frequently this is happening, and that’s what we want to find out,” she said.

“Is this a trend that’s happening? As the climate changes, are they moving further south, or is that we just don’t have the data, and there’s always been the odd turtle nesting on our beaches.”

As a rare phenomenon, a specimen of "Caretta carettta" or loggerhead sea turtle laid her eggs on Saint-Aygulf beach in July and the eggs are carefully watched since then. A baby sea turtle heads to the sea on October 3, 2016, in Saint-Aygulf beach, near Cannes, southern France. Photo credit should read YANN COATSALIOU/AFP/Getty Images

Efficacy of TurtleWatch

An example of the TurtleWatch program’s efficacy occurred last year when the identification of two nests resulted in their subsequent and successful protection. The two nests were identified from reported observations of adult turtle tracks on the Gold Coast’s Main Beach, minutes away from the centre of Surfers Paradise. These reports allowed authorities to install predator mesh over one clutch of loggerhead turtle eggs.

“Then we had our volunteers monitoring that nest. They were fortunate enough to see them emerge and watch the little guys running down to the ocean,” said Houlihan.

Additionally, another nest received assistance last year, with the hatchlings scoring a boat ride and safe release to the ocean after bright artificial lights set them off course.

Watergum said that all of the data recorded through the TurtleWatch program would be submitted to the City of Gold Coast Flora and Fauna database as well as the Queensland turtle research database TURTDATA.

Maintaining Ecosystem Balance

Brinkman told The Epoch Times that turtle populations are unfortunately under serious pressure from a variety of factors, predominantly originating in human activity. She said that at this stage, there is no concern about there being an overpopulation of sea turtles, and they need all of the help and protection that can be offered.

She also said that the Turtle Watch program does not interfere with natural processes and that the nests are monitored during development to ensure that they aren’t disturbed, and they are left to incubate and emerge as they would naturally.

However, unfortunately, due to the development of the Gold Coast’s coastline, the beaches are incredibly bright, and hatchlings can become disorientated. She said that in these situations, hatchlings are retrieved and released in a more suitable location.

“We have had many nests emerge as normal and not have issues with navigation to the water,” Brinkman said.

“After a number of days, the nests are dug to count the empty egg shells, which enables us to confirm how successful the clutch was; occasionally, a number of hatchlings may still be in the nest.”

“These are also released after a period of time in a suitable location,” she said.