the JB Green has returned!

A normal patrol. Except as we approach this turtle, she's flicking sand much farther than normal. We step over her crawl mark. It's wider with flipper marks close together, indicating a turtle pulling herself up the beach instead of crawling with alternating flippers. It's a GREEN! We get closer to see her massive body with front flippers powerfully whipping sand behind her. But is she OUR green? Is she the green turtle who nested two years ago? That girl was the first green turtle to nest on Jumby Bay.

She looks to be masking her nest. But surely she hasn't had enough time to finish laying - we were on the beach only an hour ago. She could be clearing (turtles clear an area before starting to dig). She continues making her sand angel as we notice a long trail of flicked sand behind her. This makes us think that it's likely she's covering, and has been for a while. We're used to hawksbills that clear only briefly before digging and then leave a long trail of loose sand behind them to camouflage the nest. Greens also leave long trails of sand after laying, but make enormous body pits - small craters - before digging their nest chamber. So there's a chance she hasn't laid her eggs yet.

Dom sneaks up behind her to see if she has a metal tag in her flipper. She does. He gets closer and gives us a thumbs up and huge smile. It's her. WH5650 from 2008, back for her second nesting season after a 2-year remigration interval, affirming that her presence in 2008 was not random.

She then curls a back flipper into the sand behind her. She shifts, flicks, and curls her other back flipper into the sand. She's digging. She hasn't finished after all, she's only just begun.

After digging an enormous chamber, she deposits 118 eggs (thank you Dylan and Hali) and masks for nearly 30 minutes, putting on a show for our spectators.

See you again in 10 days!

A loss in the JB population: WH5608 entangled in fishing gear

The JB hawksbill population has slowly but steadily grown over the last two decades, one of the few hawksbill populations in the Caribbean witnessing this trend. The Critically Endangered hawksbill continues to decline on a global scale, depleted by hundreds of years of harvest and increasing habitat loss. Today, fishing nets present an indirect threat, entangling and eventually drowning air-breathing sea turtles. The project received news this July of a hawksbill found dead, entangled in fishing gear off the coast of the Dominican Republic. She was identified by the WH5608 serial number of the tag in her left flipper. She was one of the younger hawksbills of the JB population, tagged in 2008. Although unfortunate, this turtle provides a clue about Caribbean hawksbill migrations, revealing that a hawksbill nesting in Antigua travelled at least 1000km, most likely either feeding on coral reefs in the Dominican Republic or using DR waters as a migration corridor from her foraging grounds back to her Antiguan nesting grounds.

This also shows us that to be effective, conservation efforts of long-lived, migratory animals like sea turtles must extend past geopolitical boundaries and promote partnerships at local, national and international levels.

Welcome back Old Girl!

June 23, 1987: A hawksbill turtle emerges from the surf, what she doesn't know is that she is about to make history. In those days little was known about the basic biology of hawksbill turtles; they were mainly known for their shell -the tortoiseshell pattern or bekko – and were extensively hunted. She is the first turtle tagged on Jumby Bay, and the star of many stories.

July 19, 2010: A hawksbill emerges from the surf, what she doesn't know is that she is about to make history. Nowadays a great deal of information has been collected on hawksbill turtles and there basic biology is understood. Many question still go unanswered, but time is an important factor in there life. How long do they live? For how long can they lay eggs? Well we don't know.
But 24 years after first emerging from the surf in 1987, she is back for a 10th nesting season.

Of course much has changed since the mid 80'; the beach is slowly recovering from the years of sand mining, much of the original native maritime forest has been lost either to hurricanes or to development. But efforts are being made to restore some of the vegetation, planting of native (and non native) species has provided cover for nesting turtles and has helped stabilise the beach and make it less vulnerable to erosion. More work is being done, more vegetation is being planted (native species) and the happy co-habitation of humans and turtles continues.

Her tag, PPN001; her name, Nina. If you cross her path, salute her as every egg that she lays, every season that she nests makes history: the turtle with the longest nesting life: 24 years.

Article from the Daily Observer

EAG encourages protection of the sea turtle  
By Kyle Christian - Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 

As nesting season reaches its peak for the Hawksbill Turtle the Environmental Awareness Group (EAG) is attempting to get residents actively involved in the preservation of the fragile species.
EAG representative Lia Nicholson, speaking on OBSERVER AM, has raised concern about artificial lights at Jabberwock Beach.

“Baby turtles, when they hatch, go towards the light because the moon reflects on the ocean and that’s how they know which direction to go,” she said. “What we are finding is that with coastal developments, sea turtles will head the other way into the land, towards the street lights.”
Areas of concern include Fig Tree Drive and any coastal hotel.

“You can wake up one morning and find 80 to 150 baby turtles dead around the light posts,” she noted.
Nicholson explained that sea turtles return to the beaches on which they hatched to lay their own eggs. Therefore, “when you have a population wiped out from a specific locale, it’s very difficult to get that revived,” she said.

The EAG is asking residents of beach front property to turn off their lights during the sea turtle nesting season, which runs from February to June for Leatherbacks and from June to September for the Hawksbills.

Other than artificial light, sea turtles are also threatened by poachers. The hawksbill turtle is hunted for its notoriously beautiful shell, while all are hunted for their meat. The green turtle is known to have the best tasting meat.

Each clutch (nest of eggs) can contain between 80 and 150 eggs and turtles lay three to five times per season, thus each season can contain between 450 and 750 eggs. Despite the large amount of eggs laid, the survival rate is very low, about 1 in 3000. The turtles that do survive can take 10 to 20 years to mature to the age when they themselves can reproduce.

Persons interested in signing up to volunteer to patrol beaches for laying turtles can do so by calling the EAG Office at 462-6236. The cost for volunteering for non-EAG members is $50 for adults and $45 for children. EAG members pay $30 for adults and $25 for children. Anyone can become a member of the EAG. Persons who spot nesting turtles or hatching eggs can report sightings to the hotline at 720-6955.

There are six species of sea turtles in the Caribbean and four are found in Antigua. The Hawskbill, Green, and Leatherback turtles use Antigua for nesting and foraging, while the Loggerhead comes here for foraging only.


View Larger Map

6 week update!

Since our last post, we've had 6 more girls join the nesting cohort, 2 more preseason nests hatch, loads of rain for this time of year, and a turtle in the pool (again!).

Last night we came across a seemingly normal track leading up the beach from the water. We follow it up and over a ledge that borders a property and keep following it until it disappears against a raised tile patio. Oh no...

She's in the pool, Dom tells me.
Crap.
We have to finish the beach and check on the other girl, Dom.
Well she's not going anywhere in there. Let's leave her for a bit.

OK, she is peaceful, comfortable and in her element. And we did get another girl out of the same pool last year (I bet it was her sister). And there's one more of us this time to hoist her out.

So Dom and Rob slide in the pool and slowly corral her to the steps so as not to scare her. When she comes up for some air close to the edge, they gently but firmly hoist her up and over the edge. She scrambles across the tiles into the grass and stops abruptly to breath. Without warning she crawls again quickly for a few meters and stops again. Tired and a little scared, she makes her way back to the water. Relieved, we say goodbye, certain that we will not see her again for at least another night.

To our surprise, we find her 20 meters down the beach digging a nest chamber only an hour later. She successfully nested, laying 124 eggs.

Tonight we finally had a neophyte (first time nester) after a 3 week dry spell. That brings the new girl total to 7, while maidens (2nd time nester) are at 11 and old girls are at 10. These 28 girls have laid 51 nests so far - we're off to a good start. Each female will come up and lay about 5 nests in one season. Last year we had 77 girls and 324 nests!

And we're back for season #24!

All of a sudden we're a month into the nesting season with 22 hawksbills to date! 6 are neophytes (first timers), 9 are maiden returnees (second timers), and 7 have nested for 3 or more seasons.

We recognize several girls from 2008 - our first season with the project. In fact, 9 of the 16 remigrants so far are on a 2 year remigration interval. Cassie is the first neophyte we ever tagged, Speedy is our fastest nester (able to finish in an hour when it normally takes an hour and 20 minutes!), and PPN040 is one of our old girls who is easily pushing 45 years old.

Although only a month into the season, we had our first nest hatch a few nights ago (surprising as nests incubate for about 2 months). This means preseason nesters arrived at Pasture Beach as early as the first week of May. The nest hatch was also a surprise because the hatchlings were emerging from beneath a nesting turtle attempting to dig her nest chamber! This turtle was digging the same chamber that another turtle dug 2 months earlier.

After a slow start, the season has now begun to pick up speed along with the arrival of intern Rob. We're predicting a strong year again to follow last year's 77 turtles.

Dom: I predict 123 turtles. no just kidding, 83.
Rob: 85. (after some serious thought) love it!
Kate: 79. seems safe I know. but I don't think we're going to have another jump in numbers after last year's 15% increase.

Seth and Carol?

Off to the last patrol of the night!