2 January 2010: Turtle team expands & Peak nesting time arrives

December was a very busy month for the Gnaraloo Turtle Tracking Day Team. We reached a nest milestone of 200 nests on 29 December 2009, and currently have logged 238 nests in total. We were lucky enough to witness another nesting Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) turtle on the beach during the morning of 30 December 2009. It is unbelievable how big these turtles are! Loggerheads are especially imposing with their high-domed carapaces and hugh heads in relation to their body size. These turtles are an endangered marine species.

Two more night team members arrived during December 2009, being Purusha Boelling from Murdoch University, Western Australia, and John-Michael Stuart from Curtin University, also in Western Australia. Both Purusha and John recently completed degrees in marine science.

Gnaraloo's new night monitoring research program formally commenced on 01 January 2010. The night program tracks nest emergence success rate as well as predation pressures on hatchlings. We identified the busiest breeding area withinn the turtle rookery areas being monitored at Gnaraloo based on the monitoring data collected since November 2009 by the day team. This area will be the focus of the monitoring work by the night teams.

Nests laid early in the 2009/10 season are due to begin hatching within the first week of January 2010, so hatchlings are expected to soon be observed on beaches. According to data collected during the turtle season 2008/09 at Gnaraloo, January is the peak annual turtle nesting period at Gnaraloo rookeries. As we've been recording around 10 nests per day to date, things are getting busy all around. Amy, Jessica, Serigo, Pursha and John