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com
green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas)
are far and away the most common.
The binomial name is from the Latin
for green, or painted turtle. The
common name is derived not from
the external appearance of the turtle,
but from the colour of its skin or body
fat this is said to be green due to the
turtles diet of chlorophyll-rich algae.
Green sea turtles number among
the oceans great travellers, and are
found the world over in tropical and
sub-tropical waters. Tagging of turtles
that visit Western Australia has shown
WESTERN CRITTERS
By ni col e gi l l
Chelonia Mydas
THe
gReen SeA
TURTle
Y
our rst wild encounter with a
sea turtle is one that will stay
with you always. For me, my
rst close encounter of the
turtle kind was in Micronesia. I was
snorkelling about in a sea-grass bed,
chasing small grassy-coloured sh,
when I looked up and saw her. A big
fat olive-green turtle, placidly grazing
on the undersea lawn. She noticed
my attentions, found them unsettling,
and in two ipper-beats, was gone.
Of the six species of turtles known
to visit Western Australian waters,
This month, we paddle in the wake of some of Western
Australias placid ancient mariners.
that they range at least as far as
Indonesia. Within Western Australia,
green sea turtles may be seen as far
south as Rottnest Island, and from
Rotto, they may be seen all the way up
the Western Australian coast, as well
as around many of the offshore islands.
Mature green sea turtles are large,
bulky beasts, among the largest in the
turtle world. They can grow to lengths
of 1.5m, and weigh more than 300kg,
although are more often around a
metre, and weighing about 180kg.
Males are generally a bit bigger than
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THe
gReen SeA
TURTle
international vessels.
Green sea turtles breathe air, and
although they can spend long periods
under water, asleep or hunting,
their submergence time is markedly
affected by their stress levels. For
this reason, turtles often die after
spending only relatively short periods
caught in shing nets. They are
unusual in that unlike any other sea
turtle, they are sometimes observed
hauling themselves onto beaches to
enjoy a little sunbathing action. As
young turtles, theyre not particularly
fussy eaters, happily chomping on
all manner of small invertebrates and
jellysh, but as they age, their taste
matures, to the point where they
subsist entirely upon sea grass and
marine algae.
Green sea turtles take a relatively
long time to make it to sexual
maturity, which may occur between 20
and 50 years. They mate roughly every
two to four years, in shallow waters,
in the region in which they were born.
For some turtles, this means a journey
of thousands of kilometres from their
feeding to breeding grounds.
Male sea turtles are not known
for their choosiness when looking for
something to mate with. In Brazil and
the Caribbean, turtle hunters will tie
a wooden disc about the same size
as a female turtle to a rope, and wait
for a randy male turtle, secure in the
knowledge that once the turtle spies
the decoy, he will nd it so attractive
that he will latch onto it, and wont let
go before they can drag him into the
boat. In Polynesia, shermen need
only throw a taro leaf, similar in prole
to a mature turtle, into the water to
lure the unsuspecting Romeos to their
death at the end of a long pointy stick.
And very occasionally, when male
turtles are feeling lonely, human divers
and snorkellers are also considered
fair game. In his paper Sexual
Harassment by a Male Green Turtle,
researcher Dr. Brian Bowen details his
own close encounter with an amorous
male green sea turtle off Cocos Island.
On this occasion, a large green
turtle came up the reef slope, and
veered towards me rather than exiting
the area. This was a mature male
green turtle with a large tail, and a
mass exceeding 100 kg. The turtle
approached slowly, on a course that
passed about two metres to my left.
Immediately after passing, the turtle
veered sharply towards my backside.
Recognizing the turtles amorous
intent, Dr. Bowen took evasive action,
and attempted to push the turtle away.
I turned and placed the tip of
the Hawaiian sling on the turtles
side behind the foreipper. In this
orientation, the turtle and I made
three full rotations, with increasing
pressure applied on the spear as the
turtle tried to approach my backside.
Subsequently the turtle broke off the
engagement and continued on his
previous track towards the shallow
reef.
While Dr. Bowen escaped
unscathed, such an encounter could
have ended badly. Large turtles
sometimes pin the object of their
desires to the sand, which could easily
THIS PICTURE: Hauling up a green sea turtle on the beach.
OPPOSITE: Cruising a green sea turtle foats over the coral on
Ningaloo Reef. Courtesy of Tourism Western Australia.
females, and have longer tails and
hooks on their front ns for grabbing
the females with during mating. Green
sea turtles are slow growing, and
have an average life span of around
eighty years. They have relatively small
heads, which like other sea turtles,
they cannot retract into their shells,
and a beak that can give sea grass
a nasty nip. Their limbs are stout
paddles, all the better for zipping
about the ocean, and digging nest
holes with. Their shells are divided
into two parts; the top, hard, rounded
segment is known as a carapace; the
lower, slightly softer segment is known
as a plastron.
Green sea turtles have always
played an important part in Aboriginal
cultures, both within Australia and
around the world. They often feature
as representatives of fertility, antiquity,
intelligence or stability. The people
of Melville Island, off the Northern
Territory, tell a creation story which
tells of how a thirsty turtle created the
worlds seawater. According to local
belief, the Indonesian island of Bali
is supported on the back of a giant
turtle, which if disturbed, will bring
serious trouble to the island. For
Hindus, the god Vishnu appears in
one of his forms as a sea turtle, and in
Buddhism, the turtle features as the
maker and supporter of the earth.
Green sea turtles esh and eggs
have been considered delicacies all
over the world since time immemorial.
They are still an important occasional
food source for some Western
Australian Aboriginal people today.
The rst recorded European trading
of turtle products within Australia
dates back to the 1860s, when turtle
shells were considered desirable
items. Large-scale processing of
turtles for soup occurred at a cannery
near Karratha in the 1930s, with
unregulated harvesting of these great
marine beasts for soup continuing
through the Forties and Fifties. In
1958, the West Australian State
government declared a commercial
turtle shery in the States north west
that remained open until 1973, from
which an estimated 60 000 turtles
were harvested for mainly European
markets. Although commercial shing
for these endangered turtles is now
banned within Australian waters,
green and other sea turtles are
still at threat from illegal shing by
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kill a human diver. Thankfully, such
inter-species interactions are rare.
Many breeding turtles come ashore
in Western Australia, with numbers
estimated at up to 20 000 and 30 000
annually. These gures can uctuate
greatly each season, with numbers
falling particularly low during El Nino.
In Western Australia, nesting occurs
between October and February.
Female turtles come ashore to lay
their eggs at night, usually within two
hours of high tide. They are quite
pernickety about where they lay, and
may abandon a half-dug hole if they
hit an obstacle, nd the sand to be of
unsuitable moisture content, or if they
are disturbed. A female turtle will rst
dig a body pit, using all four ippers
to brush away surface sand. Once
this is complete, she will use her rear
ippers to dig a vertical egg chamber,
into which she will lay between 30 and
180 eggs, which are about the same
size as ping-pong balls, and about the
same consistency as eyeballs. After
laying, she will carefully ll the pit in,
squashing the sand down on top of it,
and camouaging it to make it more
difcult for predators to nd. Some
wily females even dig a decoy nest
near the real nest. The nesting process
takes between one and three hours,
and one female may lay up to ten
nests in a single season. As is the case
with many other reptiles, incubation
temperatures inuence the sex of
the young turtles; the sand needs to
be between 25
o
C and 33
o
C. Cooler
temperatures produce males, warmer
temperatures produce females.
About two months later, the baby
turtles make their beach debut.
They hatch at night, and use the
reected light of the sky on the water
to navigate their way down to the
ocean. Unfortunately, this means of
navigation falls down when there are
articial light sources near by. Lights
from houses, torches, or passing cars
can cause the hatchlings to head in the
wrong direction, leaving them exposed
and vulnerable when daylight comes.
Thats assuming they live that long.
Feral pigs and foxes exert a
major destructive inuence on a
number of Western Australian turtle
hatching sites, consuming both eggs
and new hatchlings; at other sites,
inappropriate four-wheel driving can
crush nests.
Even something as simple as a
ill-placed footprint can doom a baby
turtle at a tiny ve centimetres, even
such a small imprint can prove to be a
deadly pitfall trap. Many seabirds look
forward to a snack of baby turtle, and
many hatchlings are consumed before
they even hit the water.
As turtles mature, life gets safer,
but not much. They may be injured by
boat strikes, drowned in shing nets,
hunted for their meat and shells, or
strangled by marine rubbish.
At present, in Western Australia,
the Green Sea Turtle is listed as a
species that is rare or likely to become
extinct. At a national level, they are
listed as being vulnerable, and they
have the dubious honour of being
on the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature Red List as an
Endangered Species.
The Department of Environment
and Conservation highly recommends
WESTERN CRITTERS
THIS PAGE: If I sit really still, Im invisible Green sea turtle on Ningaloo Reef.
Kindly provided by Julie Shuttleworth
Green sea turtles number among the oceans
great travellers, and are found the world over
in tropical and sub-tropical waters. Tagging of
turtles that visit Western Australia has shown
that they range at least as far as Indonesia.
85 www.fishingwa.com |
that you only view turtle nesting
and hatching with a registered tour
operator. The Jurabi Turtle Centre,
near Exmouth, is a great starting point
for visitors wishing to learn more about
turtle conservation, or nd out about
places to observe them in the wild.
Should you come across a turtle
nesting or hatching by yourself, there
are a number of guidelines that have
been developed to help you make
sure that you dont disturb the turtles
unduly. These are known as the Turtle
Watchers Code of Conduct, and can
be found at www.naturebase.net.,
along with lots more information on
general turtle ecology.
For more information on
international turtle news, try www.
seaturtle.org.
Floating poetry a green sea turtle
cruises over Ningaloo Reef
BCF gears up for summer
BCF PRODUCT REVI EW
B
CF is gearing up for summer with an exciting new
product the Aquaglide MultiSport. Ideal for a day
out on the water, the Aquaglide will appeal to every
member of the family thanks to its versatility.
BCF boating specialist, Mr. Richard Langtry said he
expected the Aquaglide MultiSport to be very popular with
BCF customers this summer.
The new Aquaglide is suited to anyone wanting to get
out and enjoy the water.
Because the craft can be used as a windsurfer, kayak,
sailboat or towable it really can be used by any member of
the family.
Another great feature of the Aquaglide is how easy it is to
convert from one form to another.
Designed with a wide hull, the Aquaglide offers a high level
of stability and makes a fantastic option for those wanting to
learn how to windsurf or sail. Because the ns are only 12
deep it can be used in very shallow water and the lightweight
design means it can be sailed with almost no wind.
The Aquaglide MultiSport can be assembled or stowed
away in 10 minutes and because it is inatable it is compact
enough to t into the boot of a car, RV or boat locker.
To nd out more about BCF and their range of products or
to locate your nearest store visit www.bcf.com.au.