As a third La Nina summer looms, beachgoers are being urged to help save turtle nests from being washed away by calling sightings in to the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment’s NSW TurtleWatch.
Project Officer at NSW TurtleWatch, Holly West said that last year, reports and support from members of the public meant four nests were relocated to higher ground that would otherwise have been washed away during the summer storms.
“Green and loggerhead sea turtles which nest on NSW beaches are both threatened species, so it’s vital we do everything we can to protect every nest and every egg during this critical breeding period,” Ms West said.
“From the nests we successfully relocated last year, 376 baby turtles hatched and made their way to the ocean,” she said.
“That’s almost 400 baby turtles saved by those members of the public who gave us a call.”
Ms West said nesting turtle tracks disappeared from the beach very quickly, so the earlier NSW TurtleWatch was notified about tracks or the location of a potential nest, the better.
“This allows us to monitor the nest from the get-go and act to save the eggs if the nest is at risk of being inundated by high tides or impacted by other threats, such as predators, erosion or light pollution,” the Project Officer said.
She said female turtles typically came out of the water between dusk and dawn to lay their eggs so beachgoers should keep an eye out for tracks in the sand if they were on the beach early in the morning.
Ms West said that last summer, 11 sea turtle nesting activities were recorded on NSW beaches.
“Each nesting season, in collaboration with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, we collect data on how many sea turtles are utilising the NSW coastline to nest,” she said.
“The more we understand about how, where and when marine turtles nest, the more we will be able to protect them.”
Ms West said sightings of nesting turtles, turtle tracks or nests should be reported to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) on 13000 72757 or NSW TurtleWatch on 0468 489 259.
