This long-standing marine turtle tagging program monitors numbers of nesting flatback turtles on Cowrie Beach on Mundabullangana Station. New and remigrant nesting turtles are tagged and data (carapace measurements, egg counts etc) are collected. Data are sent to DEC's Science Division in Woodvale. DEC Pilbara Region produces basic summary reports to meet DEC Animal Ethics Committee requirements. These are held at the DEC office in Karratha.

Barrow Island is a regionally important nesting area for green turtles and flatback turtles. Hawksbill turtles nest at low densities around the island and loggerheads have been only occasionally recorded from the island. Green turtles nest predominantly on the sandy west coast beaches on Barrow Island in spring and summer. Hatchlings emerge from nests through summer and early autumn. While most green turtles migrate away from the area after breeding, some appear to be resident at Barrow Island, remaining near the island during the winter. The area of the proposed feed gas shore crossing at North White's Beach is not a locally important green turtle nesting site. Flacourt Bay, where the alternative pipeline shore crossing is proposed, is an important green turtle nesting habitat. Nesting flatback turtles favour mid-east coast beaches on Barrow Island. The beaches either side of the proposed Development area at Town Point are important components of this regionally significant rookery. In the summers of 2003-2004 and 2004-2005, flatback turtle nesting densities were highest on the central east coast adjacent to Town Point (Figure 8-2). The proposed shore crossing for the domestic gas pipeline is comprised of mangroves and mudflats and is unsuitable for turtle nesting. A flatback turtle rookery has recently been identified at Back Beach, Onslow.

PART 1. BIOLOGY Cape Domett, located in tropical Western Australia, has been known as a flatback turtle, Natator depressus, nesting site but its magnitude was previously underestimated. We assessed temporal abundance within a year (by visiting the beach every seven weeks between April 2006 and March 2007) to find turtles nested throughout the year with peak nesting occurring between August and September. Annual nesting abundance was estimated in the order of several thousand individuals (2582 3250) equating to one of the largest populations of flatback turtles globally. As Cape Domett is currently unassigned to a genetic management unit, we used size and scale morphology to group the Cape Domett population within the Northern Territory genetic management unit. Threats to eggs, hatchlings and adults were examined using observations of predation and measures of incubation success. We re-evaluated the importance of this major flatback turtle nesting site and give a detailed examination of flatback turtle nesting biology in north-western Australia. PART 2. MONITORING METHODOLOGY We used mathematical modelling of the available data and biology of the species to developed costeffective monitoring protocols for future monitoring of flatback turtles at Cape Domett.

This long-standing marine turtle tagging program monitors numbers of nesting hawksbill turtles on beaches 1-7 on Rosemary Island in the Dampier Archipelago. Beach 6 is the index beach. New and remigrant nesting turtles are tagged and data (carapace measurements, egg counts etc) are collected. Data are sent to DEC's Science Division in Woodvale. DEC Pilbara Region produces basic summary reports to meet DEC Animal Ethics Committee requirements. These are held at the DEC office in Karratha.

Progress report: establishing turtle nesting activity for Serrurier Island Nature Reserve, Locker Island Nature Reserve and Locker Point to the Ashburton River, North Western Australia.

The flatback turtle (Natator depressus) in Western Australia: new information from the Western Australian Marine Turtle Project.

This long-standing marine turtle tagging program monitors numbers of nesting green turtles on John Wayne Beach on the west coast of Barrow Island. New and remigrant nesting turtles are tagged and data (carapace measurements, egg counts etc) are collected. Data are sent to DEC's Science Division in Woodvale. DEC Pilbara Region produces basic summary reports to meet DEC Animal Ethics Committee requirements. These are held at the DEC office in Karratha.

The Department of Environment and Conservation monitor marine turtles in Western Australia through various programs.

Preliminary Report on the Analysis of Sea Turtle Monitoring Data 1986 - 1999.

This project compiled marine turtle satellite tracking data for four species: green (Chelonia mydas, n=126), flatback (Natator depressus, n=164), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata, n=59) and olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea, n=27) turtles, as well as a comprehensive dataset of modelled benthic habitat data from Northern Australia. Tracking data were used to build species-level movement network models to identify connectivity among Australian Marine Parks (AMPs), Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) and State Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) across the North and North-West Marine Regions. Tracking datasets were further processed to classify foraging behaviour and quantify foraging activity spaces. Foraging activity spaces were then overlayed with existing modelled benthic habitats using local entropy analysis to assess how well turtle foraging spaces can be used to identify benthic habitats.