Look out for turtle tracks this season

Turtle nesting season has begun, with turtles nesting further south than ever before as oceans warm. Unfortunately many beaches across the Northern Rivers are still severely damaged from Cyclone Alfred, creating new dangers for turtles. The Echo spoke to NSW TurtleWatch Project Officer Merryn Dunleavy to find out how beach-goers can help.

Merryn says turtle nests were traditionally found as far south as Forster, but since 2022 have been discovered in Wollongong and Batemans Bay. This year’s season has just begun, with a green turtle nest recently being found in the Tweed area.

‘This turtle will be back,’ she said. ‘Generally turtles will lay multiple clutches each season, and those will be separated by about a 10-14 day window. She’ll be hanging out just offshore at the moment, getting ready to go again. She’ll come back up to that same area on the Tweed Coast, not necessarily the same beach, and lay another clutch of eggs.

‘When turtles hatch they’ll run down the beach, and head out towards South America, and spend what we call the lost years. Then they’ll come back to our coastal shores, where they’ll be feeding, hanging out. Round about 30 years of age onwards, depending on the species, they’ll come back to lay their eggs, with each species laying about 100 eggs or so per clutch.’

Having worked with turtles all over Australia, Merryn said NSW TurtleWatch is expecting another ‘challenging’ season, following a tough turtle nesting season last year.

‘Cyclone Alfred came through, and we ended up having to rescue heaps of clutches. This season, the dune systems of many beaches here on the north coast haven’t had time to recover,’ she explained.

With many beaches in poor condition, and what were once gently ramping dunes replaced by sand cliffs, TurtleWatch is worried that many nests will be laid too low this year, placing them in the firing line of waves and tides as turtles are unable to lay their eggs on safer higher ground.

Sea turtle nests and sea water don’t mix

‘Even normal high tides for a lot of these nests this season are going to place them at significant risk,’ said Merryn Dunleavy. ‘They can tolerate a tiny bit of wash over, but if you get inundation from those tides coming up on those nests, you get devastation and death of the developing embryos.

‘Many nesting females won’t be able to climb up into those dunes where it’s safe and elevated to lay their nests. And where the dunes aren’t as steep, even if they can get up there, what we’re left with is quite a narrow dune, filled with thick vegetation, so they’re not able to dig down to create the egg chambers for their nest.

‘So we’re in for a really challenging season.’

While dunes can bounce back and recover, the process can take months or years, and in this case hundreds of kilometres of beaches are affected by severe erosion, as far south as Sydney, which means turtles who are returning to build nests in the places where they were born may find conditions utterly changed, and unsuitable.

Another factor is debris left by cyclones and storms, even natural things like logs and branches, if there are too many.

‘Anything like that can spook turtles when they are coming up to nest, so that’s throwing another spanner in the works,’ said Merryn.

She gives the example of the green turtle that recently nested on the Tweed, who ‘did a big 360’ when she encountered a big branch.

‘She was like, oh, gosh, no. This is a bit scary. This doesn’t look right. I’m going to try again. So she went further down the beach, and walked for metres and metres down the beach to try to find a site where there wasn’t debris. In the end, she went, I don’t have a choice, so she came up and actually nested in debris.’

False crawls are a phenomenon where a nesting female crawls up the beach and returns to the sea without laying eggs, due to unsuitable conditions or disturbance. TurtleWatch says trained eyes are often necessary to differentiate false crawls, viable nests, and nests in danger.

How you can help

Merryn Dunleavy says the role of the public in identifying and calling in turtle crawl tracks is vitally important, with beach-goers requested to be on the lookout for turtle nests.

‘This recent green turtle nest was spotted by a member of the public who was just walking his dog like he does every single day, and he called it in. That’s what we need,’ she said.

‘Without people identifying these nests, calling them into us, there’s no way we can safeguard them, see that they’re in a good location, and do what we can to ensure that they are protected, particularly from the waves and the tide.

‘So we’re asking the community to call out as much as we can to help protect these vulnerable nests throughout the months ahead.’

If a nest is found, do you relocate the eggs somewhere where they can be viable?

‘Our preference is always to leave the eggs and the nests in situ, if we can. We always prefer natural incubation. In the past, we’d attend the nest site and assess if there were threats and how we can manage them while leaving the nest in place.

‘This season, for a lot of these nests, it will still be a case by case basis, but for a lot of them, when they are laid down below that high tide line and in the firing line, they will need relocation and possibly even incubation if there’s no suitable beach in the surrounding area.’

What should people do if they see tracks, and what do they look like?

Merryn says turtle tracks are generally from about 80 to 100 centimeters wide, and can look a bit like tyre tracks.

‘The best thing you can do is immediately call the NSW TurtleWatch nesting hotline, which runs 24 hours a day, on 0447 877 149.

‘That’s for a suspected nest or a nesting turtle. So give us a call, take lots of pictures, you can send them through to that hotline number as well, and someone from our accredited turtle team will come out and respond.

‘We’ll review the nest and the situation, and then we’ll do whatever we can to safeguard that nest.’

NSW TurtleWatch is a program developed by Ballina-based Australian Seabird Rescue, and is funded by the state government.

Merryn explained that the Northern Rivers is expected to see more turtles going forward. ‘We’re dealing with green turtles and loggerhead turtles, and they’re both threatened species. We’re at the southern extent of their nesting range. So it’s very important that we do everything we can to protect those nests.

‘Even if you’re not sure, give us a call, send us those pictures, and we’ll be able to tell from that. We’ll come and respond. Time is really of the essence with these nests, battling the tides and the waves. The longer they’re left in situ, the harder it is for us to move them, if we need to.

‘Marine turtle eggs have movement induced mortality,’ she explained. ‘There’s a certain window where we can move them safely, and that doesn’t affect the eggs, but if we miss that window of safety to move them, then it’s a lot harder to safeguard that nest.

‘So please, no matter what time it is, call sightings into that 24 hour nesting hotline, and our turtle team can come and respond.’

How long do turtle eggs incubate for?

Merryn Dunleavy said, ‘We can see incubation periods anywhere from about 60 to 100 days. We do have longer incubation periods here in NSW, because we’ve got cooler temperatures. Queensland is around 60 days. We can be closer to 80 or 100 days.

‘Sea turtles also exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination, so cooler temperatures actually produce more males and hotter temperatures produce females.

‘So throughout most of the other parts in Australia, they’re facing a feminisation in their population of marine turtles because it’s too hot. NSW is really unique in that we produce mostly male hatchlings,’ she said.

‘So our nests are not only important because they’re threatened species, but because they’re getting males back out there into populations and balancing those sex ratios.’

Have you got enough volunteers?

‘No, we’re definitely putting the call out for more people to join the turtle team. At the moment we’re in the stage of beach monitoring. So we get nests from November through to March, and volunteers or citizen scientists jumping on board as beach monitors is the key to identifying these nests.’

‘We definitely need more eyes and ears on the beach,’ said Merryn.

‘If you’ve got a passion for turtles and a smartphone, we get citizen scientists to record their walks in our NSW TurtleWatch app. And that’s not only looking for the presence of these turtles, but it’s also helping us to gather important information about the habitat in general, such as erosion and marine debris, which helps with management.

‘That way, everyone can see the dire condition of many of our dune systems, and the challenges that our turtles have to face.’

Apart from the hotline number (0447 877 149) potential volunteers can get in touch via [email protected].

‘We have training videos and it doesn’t take very long at all, they’ll be all trained up. If you’re already walking the beach every day, you’re already doing it, so it’s very easy to get involved with us and help the turtles out at the same time!’

What about 4WDs? Do they affect the turtles?

‘We actually had a nest on Seven Mile Beach last season,’ said Merrryn Dunleavy. ‘What can happen is that when hatchlings are running down the beach, they can get stuck in the 4WD tracks, and 4WDs can run over emerging hatchlings as well. So it can be problematic.

‘On the other hand, what was really great last season was that people in 4WDs were calling in what was happening with the nesting female on Seven Mile last year,’ she said.

‘Another key player with that one was Ballina Shire Council. They jumped on board with us, and helped monitor and manage that nest. We were actually going to do a closure of the beach during that season so those hatchlings were protected.’

Merryn says people living further south shouldn’t assume because turtle sightings were rare in the past, they won’t see turtle tracks in the future.

‘It’s important to emphasise that this is pretty much statewide. So anyone and everyone can do this. If you’re down at the beach of the afternoon, going for a swim, walking your dog, you’re already doing it, so please come on board the turtle team and help us ensure that we can come together and safeguard our nests for this season.’

The NSW TurtleWatch hotline number is 0447 877 149. Put it in your phone!