January 21st 2014: One of the world’s largest concentrations of nesting marine turtles is proving as tough as nature itself.
As many as 350 threatened loggerhead turtles have launched themselves onto a beach along Australia’s Southern Great Barrier Reef region, just one year after flood and cyclone events affected the breeding season.
The Mon Repos Conservation Park near Bundaberg is home to the largest loggerhead turtle rookery in the South Pacific and is a regular nesting site for loggerhead, flatback and green turtles between November and March each year.
Combined with record high tides, the weather events of 2013 caused serious beach erosion, sweeping away an estimated 60 percent of last year’s clutches of eggs.
Now, at the height of the season, the turtles are back and in a spectacular display of Mother Nature’s bounty, hundreds of hatchlings are emerging from their nests and heading into the big ocean unknown.
Between November and January, mature female turtles burrow deep into the sand in the darkness of night to lay as many as 130 eggs per clutch before returning exhausted to the water. The hatchlings then incubate for eight weeks before breaking out of the nest and hurling themselves toward the ocean.
Head of Queensland's loggerhead turtle research program Dr Col Limpus said the tireless efforts of volunteers and rangers over the past four decades to protect loggerhead turtles in the state’s national parks was yielding amazing results.
“This [Mon Repos] is now supporting the biggest concentration of loggerheads for the whole of the South Pacific.
“The extensive protection of turtles in the national parks system, this is all way ahead of what almost all other countries are doing on the sort of grand scale for looking after sea turtles.”
For more than 40 years Queensland’s Environment and Heritage Department has tagged nesting turtles at Mon Repos with special GPS tracking devices, providing vital information about turtle migration and breeding patterns.
“We've got a green turtle population that is one of the biggest in the world nesting on our islands right now, offshore,” Dr Limpus said.
The sight of an ancient mariner dragging its body up the beach for nesting followed by the moonlit scurry of hundreds of hatchlings into the ocean has become a popular tourism attraction, with ranger-guided turtle tours running seven nights a week during the season.
Dubbed one of Australia’s greatest conservation and educational experiences, these tours attract as many as 30,000 tourists from around the world, signalling a global trend towards ecotourism and natural attractions.
Many local Australian residents, like Diane Anderson, fall in love with the experience and end up volunteering as tour guides and turtle researchers.
“I think it is something everyone should have on their bucket list. The turtle is such an ancient creature and we are just so privileged to have them on our coast, and you see the whole life cycle here,” she said.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services officer, Lisa Emmert, explained that turtle hatchlings are born with an inbuilt GPS system that is tuned into nature's magnetic field.
“The hatchlings, once they leave our shores, orientate with the magnetic fields of the earth. As they enter the water they ride this incredibly huge current around the Pacific Ocean, which goes along the shores of South America, and then they enter back into our waters, and find their feeding ground.
“When they reach 30 years of age, that connection with the magnetic field brings them back into this area to lay their eggs as adults.”
Despite Mother Nature’s recent setbacks, Ms Emmert said the turtles had returned to Mon Repos in solid numbers.
“We are really excited to be here and seeing the whole process continue as it does and has done for thousands of years.”
This year, French woman Elisa Detrez was lucky enough to experience the turtle breeding season first hand.
She beat 10,000 applicants worldwide for the Best Job In the World tourism campaign. For six months Elisa is acting as a Queensland Park Ranger – hiking, sailing and diving around the state as a virtual tourism ambassador.
Elisa, who speaks four languages fluently, this week witnessed the dramatic and awe-inspiring spectacle at Mon Repos.
“This turtle experience is the most unique thing I have done in my life. I love wildlife and nature, Ms Detrez said.
“[The] turtle is something really exotic for me coming from France so I think I am the luckiest girl in the world to have seen that, and yeah, to experience this.”
Elisa Detrez should feel right at home at Mon Repos. The French name reflects the country’s connections to the area, when it was owned by the French Government. They laid the first telegraph cable from Australia to New Caledonia, which came ashore on Mon Repos beach.
From now until March, hatchlings will emerge from the sands of Mon Repos and make their own way into the world’s vast oceans.
It’s an arduous and dangerous voyage they undertake, but at least this year many more are likely to survive, throwing their own challenge back to Mother Nature.
One of the world’s largest concentrations of nesting marine turtles is proving as tough as nature itself.
As many as 350 threatened loggerhead turtles have launched themselves onto a beach along Australia’s Southern Great Barrier Reef region, just one year after flood and cyclone events affected the breeding season.
The Mon Repos Conservation Park near Bundaberg is home to the largest loggerhead turtle rookery in the South Pacific and is a regular nesting site for loggerhead, flatback and green turtles between November and March each year.
Combined with record high tides, the weather events of 2013 caused serious beach erosion, sweeping away an estimated 60 percent of last year’s clutches of eggs.
Now, at the height of the season, the turtles are back and in a spectacular display of Mother Nature’s bounty, hundreds of hatchlings are emerging from their nests and heading into the big ocean unknown.
Between November and January, mature female turtles burrow deep into the sand in the darkness of night to lay as many as 130 eggs per clutch before returning exhausted to the water. The hatchlings then incubate for eight weeks before breaking out of the nest and hurling themselves toward the ocean.
Head of Queensland's loggerhead turtle research program Dr Col Limpus said the tireless efforts of volunteers and rangers over the past four decades to protect loggerhead turtles in the state’s national parks was yielding amazing results.
“This [Mon Repos] is now supporting the biggest concentration of loggerheads for the whole of the South Pacific.
“The extensive protection of turtles in the national parks system, this is all way ahead of what almost all other countries are doing on the sort of grand scale for looking after sea turtles.”
For more than 40 years Queensland’s Environment and Heritage Department has tagged nesting turtles at Mon Repos with special GPS tracking devices, providing vital information about turtle migration and breeding patterns.
“We've got a green turtle population that is one of the biggest in the world nesting on our islands right now, offshore,” Dr Limpus said.
The sight of an ancient mariner dragging its body up the beach for nesting followed by the moonlit scurry of hundreds of hatchlings into the ocean has become a popular tourism attraction, with ranger-guided turtle tours running seven nights a week during the season.
Dubbed one of Australia’s greatest conservation and educational experiences, these tours attract as many as 30,000 tourists from around the world, signalling a global trend towards ecotourism and natural attractions.
Many local Australian residents, like Diane Anderson, fall in love with the experience and end up volunteering as tour guides and turtle researchers.
“I think it is something everyone should have on their bucket list. The turtle is such an ancient creature and we are just so privileged to have them on our coast, and you see the whole life cycle here,” she said.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services officer, Lisa Emmert, explained that turtle hatchlings are born with an inbuilt GPS system that is tuned into nature's magnetic field.
“The hatchlings, once they leave our shores, orientate with the magnetic fields of the earth. As they enter the water they ride this incredibly huge current around the Pacific Ocean, which goes along the shores of South America, and then they enter back into our waters, and find their feeding ground.
“When they reach 30 years of age, that connection with the magnetic field brings them back into this area to lay their eggs as adults.”
Despite Mother Nature’s recent setbacks, Ms Emmert said the turtles had returned to Mon Repos in solid numbers.
“We are really excited to be here and seeing the whole process continue as it does and has done for thousands of years.”
This year, French woman Elisa Detrez was lucky enough to experience the turtle breeding season first hand.
She beat 10,000 applicants worldwide for the Best Job In the World tourism campaign. For six months Elisa is acting as a Queensland Park Ranger – hiking, sailing and diving around the state as a virtual tourism ambassador.
Elisa, who speaks four languages fluently, this week witnessed the dramatic and awe-inspiring spectacle at Mon Repos.
“This turtle experience is the most unique thing I have done in my life. I love wildlife and nature, Ms Detrez said.
“[The] turtle is something really exotic for me coming from France so I think I am the luckiest girl in the world to have seen that, and yeah, to experience this.”
Elisa Detrez should feel right at home at Mon Repos. The French name reflects the country’s connections to the area, when it was owned by the French Government. They laid the first telegraph cable from Australia to New Caledonia, which came ashore on Mon Repos beach.
From now until March, hatchlings will emerge from the sands of Mon Repos and make their own way into the world’s vast oceans.
It’s an arduous and dangerous voyage they undertake, but at least this year many more are likely to survive, throwing their own challenge back to Mother Nature.
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