Queensland: K'gari (Fraser Island) nesting Green and Loggerhead turtles 2016-23

Original provider: Aubrey Strydom Dataset credits: Data provider: Aubrey Strydom; Originating data center: Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT); Project sponsor or sponsor description: Aubrey Strydom Abstract: See Project ID 1151 for tracking of courting greens from Sandy Cape: http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/?project_id=1151<br><br>The traditional owners of K'gari (Fraser Island), the Butchulla people, gained Native Title over much of K'gari in 2014, and we acknowledge their long heritage on and nurturing of this beautiful land, and wish them well with their new opportunities.<br>The idea of monitoring nesting turtles in the Sandy Cape rookery on K'gari-Fraser Island was initiated in the 1992-3 season by Rowan Foley, a Butchulla man, who was then employed as a Ranger by Queensland (National) Parks and Wildlife Service, (QNPWS, now QPWS) and as a result some nest and track-count monitoring was undertaken by long-time annual campers Karl & Sue Klein, and the Lighthouse Keepers, Dudley & Sue Fulton, & Aubrey Strydom & Lainie Rowe. <br><br>Rowan's report recommending that a turtle census be undertaken was accepted by QPWS and in the 1993-4 season Steve Price - QPWS 2IC Ranger at Waddy Point, with the support of his RIC Bart Klekar, came to the top end of K'gari-Fraser Island with the two Michaels - volunteers from the Mon Repos Turtle Rookery.<br>A number of Park Rangers and the Lighthouse Keepers were inducted into turtle species I.D., flipper tagging, and data sheet entry and so began an 18 year monitoring program, with a 17 night mid-season nesting census and flipper tagging of all turtles coming ashore during the census across the 44km of beach from Rooney Point to Ngkala Rocks.<br>In that first season the first nest relocations to near the Lighthouse gate by vehicle was trialed, using three doomed clutches laid below the king tide level.<br><br>This was successful and since then 5 nest relocation cages with a total capacity of 120 clutches have been developed at strategic locations along the rookery, and recently also at Orchid Beach, to enable protection of doomed loggerhead and green clutches, and to provide protection for a percentage of loggerhead clutches from vehicle and camping impacts, and dingo and goanna (monitor lizard) depredation.<br><br>In the first few years in the 1990's between 50 to 100 greens, but only 5 to 7 loggerheads were nesting annually, and drowned adult loggerhead turtles were being found washed up on the beach. <br><br>Nesting numbers increased to twelve to fifteen loggerheads a year from 1997 when a seasonal 3 to 5 km wide trawl exclusion zone was established along the NW beach between Rooney Point and Sandy Cape, and then climbed to near 50 nesting each year after the introduction of TEDs, (Turtle Exclusion Devices) in the Queensland trawl fishery nets in 2001.<br>Currently annually about 40 to 50 loggerheads nest along the 44 kilometers of the Rooney Point to Sandy Cape to Ngkala Rocks rookery, and between 50 and 100 loggerhead nests are protected by relocation each season, by the Sandy Cape Lighthouse Volunteer Caretakers, in a program supported by QPWS.<br><br>Green nests are not generally relocated, as the Southern Barrier Reef green turtle population is still slowly increasing since turtle protection in Queensland began in the early 1950s, and these eggs support the Wongari (Dingo) population as part of their natural diet.<br><br>While sometimes up to 600 greens nest in a season, and as few as 3 the next season, most commonly between 50 and 100 green turtles come in to nest each year. This variability provides some protection to the greens clutches by sometimes alternatively flooding the predators' diet one season with a mass nesting and starving them the next.<br><br>A study of dingo impacts on the nests saw nest depredation vary between 15% in a season when there was a mass nesting of over 250 greens and 85% when there were only about 30 greens nesting. <br><br>A potential new threat to the rookery is the advance of feral foxes and pigs up K'gari-Fraser Island. They are in large numbers on the adjacent mainland and are good swimmers.<br>In recent years foxes have been sighted at Awinya Creek, only 30 to 40 kilometers from either end of the Sandy Cape rookery, and in December 2018 a feral pig was seen on the beach in the rookery only 5km south of Sandy Cape.<br>Monitoring of nests for any pig and fox impacts will guide management plans to provide further protection.<br><br>Over the years since 1993 over 500 male green turtles were tagged courting in the shallows or basking on the beach, and a correlation between their numbers and the size of the concurrent green nesting season was observed. Some were found to be carrying flipper tags from the Shoalwater Bay turtle rodeo program, and K'gari-Fraser Island tagged males were being found at Shoalwater Bay, and in the Whitsundays. <br><br>It was found that female green turtles tagged on the Island in the September/October courting season were being seen that season nesting further north at other rookeries in the Southern Great Barrier Reef, and at the Wongarra Coast and Wreck Rock mainland rookeries. <br><br>In 2014 two males were tagged while courting at Sandy Cape and one returned home to Shoalwater Bay Qld, and one to the outer Barrier Reef near Olympic Reef.<br><br>The green female April O'Moreton, who had been tagged as a juvenile in 1992 in Moreton Bay was found courting at Sandy Cape in 2015 and given a satellite tracker, and she moved on to nest at North West Island in the Capricorn Bunker group. <br><br>In the 2015-16 season the project also tracked 5 green males and in 2016-17 a further 6 green males, to expand the knowledge of where they come from to court at Fraser Island, what connectivity they have to other known courting areas, and to examine the areas in the Great Sandy Marine Park they use during their courting sojourn.<br><br>Three females were tracked in the 2016-17 season - one with a history of nesting at K'gari-Fraser Island, one known to forage in the Whitsundays, and one known to nest at Wreck Island in 1998 in the Capricorn Bunker group.<br><br>In November 2017, 3 nesting loggerhead females and 8 nesting green females, and in December 2018, 5 nesting loggerhead females were given trackers, to enable comparison of the female's inter-nesting habitat use with that of the males courting habitat, and help inform an assessment of the adequacy of the seasonal go-slow and no-trawl zones in the Great Sandy Marine Park. <br>原始提供方：奥布里·斯特赖多姆（Aubrey Strydom） 数据集归属：数据提供方：奥布里·斯特赖多姆；原始数据中心：卫星跟踪与分析工具（Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool, STAT）；项目资助方或资助说明：奥布里·斯特赖多姆 摘要： 如需查询桑迪角绿海龟（green turtle）求巢追踪信息，请查看项目ID 1151：http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/?project_id=1151 弗雷泽岛（K'gari）的传统所有者巴丘拉族（Butchulla people）于2014年获得该岛绝大多数区域的原住民土地所有权。我们认可其长期以来守护并滋养这片秀美土地的悠久历史，并祝愿他们在新的发展机遇中诸事顺遂。 1992-1993监测季，时任昆士兰（国家）公园与野生动物服务处（现更名为昆士兰公园与野生动物服务处，QPWS）管理员的巴丘拉族人罗恩·福利（Rowan Foley），发起了在弗雷泽岛桑迪角海龟繁殖地开展筑巢海龟监测的构想。此后，长期在此年度露营的卡尔与苏·克莱因夫妇、灯塔管理员达德利与苏·富尔顿夫妇，以及奥布里·斯特赖多姆和莱妮·罗参与了部分巢穴与踪迹计数监测工作。 罗恩提出的开展海龟种群普查的提案获QPWS批准。1993-1994季，时任沃迪角QPWS二级管理员的史蒂夫·普莱斯，在其副手巴特·克莱卡尔的支持下，偕同两名来自蒙雷波斯海龟繁殖地的志愿者迈克尔兄弟，前往弗雷泽岛北端开展工作。随后，多名公园管理员与灯塔管理员接受了海龟物种识别、鳍肢标记及数据录入培训，由此开启了为期18年的监测项目：每季度中期开展为期17晚的筑巢普查，并对鲁尼角至恩卡拉岩总长44公里的海滩范围内，于普查期间上岸的所有海龟进行鳍肢标记。首个监测季中，团队尝试将涨潮线以下的3窝濒毁龟卵通过车辆转移至灯塔闸门附近，该方法取得成功。 该转移方法取得成功后，项目组在繁殖地沿线的战略点位及近期的兰花海滩搭建了5组巢箱防护笼，总计可容纳120窝龟卵，用于保护濒临灭失的红海龟（loggerhead）与绿海龟卵，同时使部分红海龟卵免受车辆、露营活动的干扰，以及澳洲野犬和巨蜥（goanna，监控蜥蜴）的啃食。 1990年代初期，每年约有50至100只绿海龟筑巢，而红海龟仅5至7只，同时海滩上常发现溺亡的成年红海龟。 1997年，沿鲁尼角至桑迪角的西北海滩设立了宽3至5公里的季节性拖网禁渔区后，年筑巢红海龟数量增至12至15只；2001年昆士兰拖网渔业引入海龟排斥装置（Turtle Exclusion Devices, TEDs）后，该数量进一步攀升至每年近50只。 目前，鲁尼角至桑迪角至恩卡拉岩的44公里海滩繁殖带，每年约有40至50只红海龟筑巢。桑迪角灯塔志愿管理员团队在QPWS的支持下，每年会为约50至100窝红海龟卵实施防护转移。 绿海龟卵通常无需转移：自1950年代初昆士兰启动海龟保护工作以来，南珊瑚礁绿海龟种群仍在缓慢恢复，且这些龟卵是沃恩加里（Wongari，澳洲野犬）天然食谱的组成部分。 尽管单个监测季的绿海龟筑巢量可达600只，而下一季可能仅3只，多数年份的年筑巢量介于50至100只之间。这种数量波动为绿海龟卵提供了一定保护：当某一季大规模筑巢时，捕食者的食物供应过剩；而次年筑巢量稀少时，捕食者则会因食物匮乏而种群缩减。 一项针对野犬对龟巢影响的研究显示，当季绿海龟大规模筑巢（超过250只）时，龟巢被啃食率仅为15%；而当筑巢量仅约30只时，啃食率则高达85%。 该繁殖地面临的潜在新威胁，是外来物种狐与猪在弗雷泽岛的扩散。这些动物在相邻大陆数量众多且擅长游泳。近年来，人们在距离桑迪角繁殖地两端仅30至40公里的阿温亚溪发现了狐的踪迹；2018年12月，人们在桑迪角以南仅5公里的繁殖地海滩上发现了一头野猪。对龟巢遭受猪与狐侵害情况的监测，将为后续管理保护方案的制定提供依据。 自1993年以来，项目组已为超过500只在浅水区求偶或在海滩上休憩的雄性绿海龟佩戴了鳍肢标记，并观察到其数量与当季绿海龟筑巢规模存在相关性。部分个体带有肖尔沃特湾海龟牛仔竞技项目的鳍肢标记，而弗雷泽岛标记的雄性海龟也在肖尔沃特湾与圣灵群岛被发现。 研究发现，9月至10月求偶季在该岛被标记的雌性绿海龟，会在当季前往南大堡礁的其他繁殖地，以及翁加拉海岸和Wreck Rock大陆繁殖地筑巢。 2014年，科研人员在桑迪角为两只求偶的雄性绿海龟佩戴了标记，其中一只返回了昆士兰州肖尔沃特湾，另一只则前往了奥林匹克礁附近的外礁海域。 2015年，1992年在莫顿湾被标记为幼龟的绿海龟个体埃普丽尔·奥莫顿（April O'Moreton）在桑迪角被发现正处于求偶期，科研人员为其安装了卫星追踪器，随后它前往卡普里科恩邦克群岛的西北岛筑巢。 2015-2016监测季，项目组还追踪了5只雄性绿海龟；2016-2017季，又追踪了6只雄性绿海龟，以进一步了解它们前往弗雷泽岛求偶的来源地、与其他已知求偶区域的种群连通性，以及它们在大沙海洋公园内的求偶活动区域。 2016-2017季，科研人员为3只雌性绿海龟安装了追踪器：一只曾在弗雷泽岛筑巢，一只已知在圣灵群岛觅食，另一只曾于1998年在卡普里科恩邦克群岛的Wreck Island筑巢。 2017年11月，科研人员为3只筑巢雌性红海龟和8只筑巢雌性绿海龟安装了追踪器；2018年12月，又为5只筑巢雌性红海龟安装了追踪器。此举旨在对比雌性海龟的巢间栖息地利用情况与雄性海龟的求偶栖息地，同时为评估大沙海洋公园内季节性慢行区与禁拖区的合理性提供数据支持。