DECEMBER 2020
My Summer
ENVIRONMENT
TURTLE SEASON IN THE TROPICS By Jax Bath
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which is an imprint left by the flippers which indicates that the turtle has gone up the beach. This track must be followed until the turtle is sighted. It is also important to note that one should keep their distance and remain silent during this sea turtle stalking session, as any disturbance might send them back to the water.
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when the conditions are just right. October to March is the typical time around which they lay, although turtle season carries on until the last hatchlings emerge in May. Watching this process is absolutely extraordinary, but it also brings home just how tough turtles have it.
hilst our fellow South Africans flock from the north to our white sandy beaches during the holiday season, the beaches in the tropics are also expecting visitors, of an ancient kind. December is peak turtle season in the tropics, and depending on where one is, there are 7 different species of sea turtle that can be found braving the land in order to lay their eggs. Most of these mother turtles will do so under the cover of dark, but last year at this time, I had the privilege of working on an island in the Seychelles where these reptilian creatures go against the grain by laying during the day.
Once the turtle has been located, the next step is to see what the mom to be is up to. Sometimes, one might find a turtle who is prospecting. During my time on the island, one could spend 5 hours with such a girl only to have her give up and leave the beach without laying. What you hope to find is a turtle that has found a suitable spot to lay her eggs, and that she has begun the arduous digging of her nest. This is incredible to watch as the girls will use their back flippers to cup the sand and remove it from her hole, making a perfect chamber before going into a trance like state, which indicates that she is ready to lay!
Nests are often eroded by rising seas, eggs devoured by Ghost Crabs and mothers of some species still being poached despite turtles being protected in most parts of the world. Despite this, there is some hope that turtle programs around the world can contribute to more hatchlings reaching the water and more research shedding light on the lives of these animals, allowing us to better aid their survival. Next week, I will talk about some of the measures Cousine Island put in place in order to help the hatchlings, but I will also be sharing some of my favorite stories from 3 months of turtle monitoring.
On the 15th of December last year, I arrived on the main island of Mahe in the Seychelles, where I would then have to catch a plane and then a boat to Cousine Island. This tiny granitic island is a conservation haven and a very important laying site for the critically endangered Hawksbill Turtle. Hawksbill Turtles where hunted down for their beautiful shells, and with so many threats to their survival at every stage of life, these turtles need all the help they can get.
This is why, every year during turtle season, Cousine as well as other islands, will bring in extra help to assist during turtle season. Turtle monitors will patrol the beach up to 8 times daily, in search of turtle tracks. When you’re looking to catch up with a laying turtle, you need to be walking the beach almost every hour to ensure that one does not miss what we call an emergence. An emergence is when the female turtle leaves the water in order to search for a place to lay. Sometimes, turtles will do this several times before actually coming up to lay their eggs.
At this point, the turtle monitor will slide on a glove with a clicker in the other hand, place the protected hand under the turtle and count the eggs. Some turtles lay a couple of hundred eggs at a time, others just topping the hundred mark and this process usually takes about 20 minutes. After the laying, the female will then cover her nest, making an effort to divert any predators by spraying sand up to a few meters away from where her eggs lay. When she first begins to cover, she is still in her trance like state, which allows scientists and volunteers to measure the length and width of her shell and check if she has any tags in her flippers. The numbers of these tags are recorded and placed in a data base where one might be able to find parts of the life history of these otherwise mysterious animals. Once this has been done, the monitors move away and allow the turtle to finish covering up her eggs, before she will return to the ocean.
COMMON NAME: Hawksbill sea turtles SCIENTIFIC NAME: Eretmochelys imbricata TYPE: Reptiles DIET: Carnivore AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IN THE WILD: 30 to 50 years SIZE: 24 to 45 inches WEIGHT: 100 to 150 pounds IUCN RED LIST STATUS: Critically Endangered
When the turtle emerges, one must find the “up track�
These female turtles will go through this process several times during the laying season, producing hundreds of eggs which are due to hatch around 2 months later
CURRENT POPULATION TREND: Decreasing
