Identifying the links between nesting and foraging grounds for the Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) sea turtles in northern Australia
Project final report
WWF Australia, Tiwi Land Council and Coastcare
Department of the Environment and Water Resources, July 2007
About the project
This project achieved all of the goals of the initial proposal. Below are some of the significant results of the project.
Olive ridley turtles:
- showed fidelity to the same nesting beach between nestings within seasons
- showed fidelity to the same nesting beach between seasons
- utilised inshore habitat in the vicinity of their nesting beach between nestings within the one season
- migration between nesting and foraging grounds were between 230 to 1130 km
- (one turtle) showed long term fidelity to a small foraging area
- attachment methods need to be revised for adult olive ridley turtles
A successful education component to this project was completed to raise the profile of sea turtles at several levels which included within communities on the Tiwi Islands, with Darwin and the NT, Nationally and Internationally. Various media was used including: locals meetings and local newsletters, posters (local and schools), TV and newspapers (State and National), websites (local, national and international).
This project was not designed to gather additional biological information on olive ridley turtles. However miscellaneous data was collected during the course of this project which added significant information about Australian olive ridley turtles including body measurements of nesting turtles, identification of nest predation and hatching and emergence success.