18/10/12 A Personal Blog from the Field
You know that the turtle nesting
season has begun when all you dream about at night is turtles, tracks and
nests! This year is my third nesting season on Curieuse island (as science
coordinator and my last) and it certainly hasn’t disappointed so far. This
season we are spending more time than ever on the main nesting beaches and
therefore encountering as many turtles as possible. This will provide a more
thorough understanding of how many times each female nests on Curieuse and also
help with our new research aim of obtaining an estimate of hatchling success.
Walking onto the nesting beaches
each morning is a bit like the feeling you get on Christmas eve; the
anticipation of what you might find is always a thrill. You could find a myriad
of tracks that need deciphering or an actual female going about the long and
thorough process of laying her eggs, either way as the season goes on and more
and more nests are made you can’t help but marvel at the miracle going on
beneath the sand. There are thousands of critically endangered hawksbills
turtles and even some greens developing, ready to make the big journey to the
sea and hopefully a long life in the oceans.
Last week we had a visit from Dr
Jeanne Mortimer (turtle expert & Champion and my personal hero), she
imparted a wealth of knowledge and entertained us with stories of her
adventures. She has given me the job of compiling all the data for the Curieuse
nesting seasons into a database and writing a report to summarize it. Hopefully
this will give a clearer picture of the current nesting population and how it
has changed over the years.
This week I have had my first match
using the photo ID technique; a female photographed 2 years ago was seen
nesting here again this year! A real breakthrough...she is a loyal turtle to
Curieuse Island and was possibly even born here many years ago. When I finally
leave Curieuse I will be happy in the knowledge that Curieuse is a safe and
protected island and remains a very important Hawksbill nesting area!
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