Turtle special,
I'll have you all know that I haven't been to the beach to see this for myself, being a stuffed toy the beach with all that sand isn't the ideal place though I have been promised a visit sometime. I'm still waiting.
This is about L's interest in the giant marine turtles that nest in this region.

Satellite tracker
Turtles
L's first night back at the beach on turtle watch brought in Dark and Stormy. She is a loggerhead turtle of special interest. She was first tagged in 1999 and Bundabaerg Rum sponsored a GPS tracker on her some years ago at which time she was Christened with a bottle of Dark and Stormy, a special rum produced here. The research centre was advised of her presence on our beach and someone from there came and collected the 122 eggs she laid. They would then be weighed, re-located on Mon Repos beach and a special study of the success of the nest and other details will be done when they hatch after about 8 weeks. L was very excited about that.
The article in "The Times" in the UK has a follow up.
It was about one of the flat back turtles at Mon Repos research centre: The same turtle, a flatback, came back for her 2nd lay of the season after which she was taken to the research centre and kept overnight then next day we were all invited over to see a satellite tracker strapped onto her back, an ultrasound done, and she was then launched back into the sea. After studying her that morning Dr. Col had found early tag scars on her that were in a position not used since 1975, which not only makes her the oldest tagged turtled in the world even though she has lost those old tags, but also means she has had a breeding life of at least 41 years, and as she is a flatback she must be at least 60 years old, being at least 19 when they start. She has been recorded to have laid well over 100 nests on Mon Repos beach during that time and has not been recorded on any other beach. From the tracker Col is hoping to learn where she goes when she is between lays, as she will be back in two weeks to lay one more clutch this season. The ultra sound showed she had more follicles to form eggs. He is also very interested in where she lives the rest of her life between breeding seasons that are 2 to 5 years apart. As she has survived the years of the 1970's, 80's and early 90's when the mortality rate was very high from fishing nets and such like he believes she lives somewhere that was much safer. She doesn't show any signs of shark attack either, no carapace or flipper damage. We are all very interested in what the tracker will show.
A week after this fallback had been sent on her way, a loggerhead of interest turned up and laid on Mon Repos beach. This girl had not been seen for 19 years, prior to that she had been a regular layer at Mon Repos having been tagged in the 79/80 season when she laid her first ever clutch of eggs. She had been recorded once at Oaks Beach, Burnett Heads since records have been kept for that beach. Dr Limpus believes that the reason she hasn’t been for so long is because of an accident she had sustained since last seen. To his expert eye it appears to be a boat propeller injury that left a deep gash across the rear of her carapace above her reproductive organs, kidney and other vitals. Quite possibly a miracle that she recovered let alone is back breeding once more. the injury has left a clear scar across her carapace that is easy to spot. After her remarkable recovery she too was sent off with a satellite tracker on her back. Dr Limpus is interested to learn where she lives during the time between breeding season that are 3 to 5 years apart. Being a loggerhead turtle this tracker was able to be glued to her carapace, whereas with the fallback turtle of a week ago, that one had to have a harness as that species of turtle has skin over their carapace, whereas the loggerhead turtles have scales over the plates that make up their carapace that they shed periodically. Even if she should not re-appear at local beaches she will shed that tracker over time. She will probably re-appear though in another couple of weeks as an ultrasound showed that she will lay at least one more clutch of eggs this season. We, the volunteers from Oaks Beach are hoping she will once again honour us with her presence.Also, we have had two green turtles visit our beach this season, a very unusual occurrence because they like the really dark places and we have quite a lot of light. One of these Greens was on L’s watch, about midnight, but she missed the turtle because it came up at the far end of the beach. it didn’t venture too far out of the water before encountering the rock wall and promptly returned to the water. Trust L to miss her. The second one turned up this morning just before 4am when Geoff was just about to go home for a sleep. L turned up for her 4am morning patrol to be told she had just missed all the excitement, trust L to miss it. She’s hopeless! This was an untagged girl, quite possibly her first breeding season. Geoff did manage to tag her while she was on the beach. Apart from this bit of excitement things have been extremely quite at Oaks beach with very few Loggerheads choosing to lay there this summer.
© Lynette Regan 20th December 2015