A new Queensland-made interactive atlas has been produced in time for last week’s World Turtle Day (16 June).
The atlas shows nesting, courtship, feeding and migration routes of marine turtles, bringing together decades of Australian and global data.
The online Marine Turtle Breeding and Migration Atlas, also known as TurtleNet, is the work of Science and Threatened Species staff from the Department of Environment and Science (DES) working in collaboration with the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), a United Nations treaty.
Chief Scientific Officer at the DES, Col Limpus said that thanks to the partnership between the DES and the CMS, the public now had access to global information on marine turtles for education and communication use.
“The app is a one-stop location to show what we know about the distribution and abundance of marine turtles at nesting beaches and courtship areas and tracking them to foraging areas throughout the world,” Dr Limpus said.
“You can search by species, location and country, or check out the night sky atlas which shows where turtle hatchlings face the most challenges from lighting.”
He said users could call up maps of nesting distribution and abundance by species based on tagging and nesting census studies; migration between breeding and foraging areas based on flipper tag data, and breeding migration based on satellite telemetry.
“It’s fitting that Queensland has developed this tool — we have six of the world’s seven species, and also have Australia’s longest history of turtle conservation and management, starting in 1929,” Dr Limpus said.
Access the Marine Turtle Breeding and Migration Atlas at this PS News link.
