Data on nesting marine turtles are collected opportunistically during DEC patrols of the Dampier Archipelago. The aim of the monitoring program is to determine what species of marine turtle nest on what beaches (and to what extent).

Marine turtles in northern Australia

Status of the Western Australian marine turtle populations: the Western Australian Marine Turtle Project 1986-1990.

This record is derived from DEC Marine Policy Branch Endnote library and spatially referenced SIER Database.

Monitoring, identification & counting tracks made by nesting turtles, nesting success and impact of humans, around Cemetery Beach, Pretty Pool Beach & Eighty Mile Beach (Caravan Park & Anna Plains Station).

This dataset consists of the home ranges and satellite tracks taken from eleven dugongs and ten green turtles. Methods: Fast-acquisition satellite telemetry was used to track eleven dugongs and ten green turtles at two geographically distinct foraging locations in Queensland, Australia to evaluate the inter- and intra-species spatial relationships and assess the efficacy of existing protection zones. Home-range analysis and bathymetric modeling were used to determine spatial use and compared with existing protection areas using GIS. Raw, unfiltered tracking data were collected using fast acquisition GPS satellite transmitters attached to six dugongs (three females and three males) and four adult female green sea turtles near Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait, Australia in July 2009 and September 2010, and five dugongs (four females and one male) and six female green sea turtles (five adults and one prepubescent) in Shoalwater Bay, Australia in June/July 2012. The dugongs were captured using the dermal hold fast technique in Torres Strait and the standard rodeo technique in Shoalwater Bay. At both locations, the dugongs were fitted with Telonics Gen 4 GPS/ARGOS marine units attached to a 3 m tether linked to a padded tailstock harness. The green turtles were captured using the standard rodeo technique, brought to Mabuiag Island (Torres Strait) or MacDonald Point (Shoalwater Bay), and fitted with one of four types of satellite transmitters (Sirtrack F4G 291A, Wildlife Computers SPLASH10 BF-273A and Splash10 BF-273C, or SMRU SRDL 9000x). Each transmitter was attached to the carapace using the methods described in Shimada et al. (2012). Each turtle was released from shore the day after capture. Dugong units were programmed to collect a GPS position hourly; turtle units every 30 minutes. All units were programmed with a five minute repeat in case a signal was not received when the animal surfaced. Home-ranges were calculated for each animal using data from the entire period in which they were tracked and were calculated using fixed kernel density estimation with bandwidths selected by likelihood cross-validation (CVh). Kernel densities and bandwidths were calculated using the Geospatial Modelling Environment (GME), an extension to ArcGIS, with a resolution of 50 m. For a more detailed description of the methods see Gredzens(2014). Format: This dataset consists of shapefiles for the satellite tracks (lines and points) for the 21 animals as well as shapefiles for the calculated home ranges. References: Gredzens C, Marsh H, Fuentes MMPB, Limpus CJ, Shimada T, et al. (2014) Satellite Tracking of Sympatric Marine Megafauna Can Inform the Biological Basis for Species Co-Management. PLoS ONE 9(6): e98944. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0098944 Data Location: This dataset is filed in the eAtlas enduring data repository at: data\NERP-TE\1.2_GBR-Turtles-dugong-monitoing Change log: 2024-05-29 - Added interactive map of the resource link to Layer id: ea_nerp:TS_QLD_NERP-1-2-2-1_JCU_Turtle-dugong-tracking_2009-2012

In Australia, all six species of marine turtles that occur in our waters are protected under the Australian Government's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) and various State and Northern Territory legislation. Flatback Turtle (Natator depressus)Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta)Olive Ridley Turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) Under section 270(2)(d) of the EPBC Act, 'Habitat critical to the survival of the listed threatened species' must be identified in the Recovery Plan for Marine Turtles. The criteria for describing habitat critical to the survival of a species for marine turtles was determined in accordance with the EPBC Act Significant Impact Guidelines 1.1 - Matters of National Environmental Significance. The guidelines define 'habitat critical to the survival of a species' as areas necessary: activities such as foraging, breeding or dispersalfor the long-term maintenance of the species (including the maintenance of species essential to the survival of the species)to maintain genetic diversity and long term evolutionary developmentfor the reintroduction of populations or recovery of the species. The mapped areas were identified by consensus of a panel of experts in marine turtle biology.

26th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation Island of Crete, Greece, 3-8 April 2006. Oral Presentation. The Torres Strait and northern Queensland have the largest population of green turtles in the world. This population supplies a large, internationally-based green turtle harvest, which is currently not managed. In Queensland, successful management will need the involvement of the Indigenous Torres Strait Islanders who use green turtles for cultural, social and economic purposes. This project developed community-based strategies for green turtle catch-monitoring upon which communities could base management plans. I engaged two Torres Strait Island communities in a step-wise process: (1) I obtained support from the Torres Strait Regional Authority; (2) This support enabled me to engage Traditional Owners and Community Councils in each community; and (3) I involved turtle hunters through participatory workshops/meetings. Community members helped me design a datasheet to collect data about hunting behavior needed for co-management. Hunters completed the datasheet after each hunting trip. I assessed the project's success by evaluating the proportion of hunters in the community that participated and the quality of the information they provided. We have one year of data from two communities that actively participate in hunting. Ninety-two and 25% of hunters who signed up from Hammond and Thursday Islands, respectively, handed in datasheets consistently. On Thursday Island, a larger community with a broad social structure, it was more difficult to involve community members in catch-monitoring than on Hammond Island, where there is strong community support for the project. In this paper I discuss culturally appropriate aspects of hunting behavior and catch-monitoring statistics from these two communities. Acknowledgments: Acknowledging project support from: CRC Torres Strait, James Cook University, Department of Environment and Heritage, Ocean Parks Conservation Foundation, Hammond Island Council, TRAWQ Community Council, Kaurareg Traditional Aboriginal Elders Corporation, WNM Community Fisher Group and Prince of Wales Community Fisher Group; Acknowledging travel award support from: Sea Turtle Symposium, Disney Animal Kingdom, Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council, US National Marine Fisheries Service, and US Fish and Wildlife Service.