WHAT HAPPENED TO 2010...
2010 highlights
I cant stress how ashamed I am for not writing anything for almost a year... So much has happened and time has been a luxury, but that's not an excuse to have the year almost go in vain. So, some of the highlights from this year include:
March-
First expedition to Mabuiag Island to satellite tag dugongs.
The purpose of this project is to inform the adaptive cycle of dugong management in Torres Strait by working with Torres Strait Islanders including Traditional Owners and the Torres Strait Region Authority to use satellite tracking to quantify the movements and habitat use of dugongs in Torres Strait. In March we undertook the first trip to:
1) Quantify the movements and habitat use of dugongs in Torres Strait by satellite tagging 9 dugongs along the reefs near Mabuiag Island (Oman, Beka Turnagain (Buru) and Yarrai Gumi Maza reefs).
2) Build the capacity of Mabuiag islanders and local rangers by involving them on dugong capture, transmitter deployment and training sessions on Western Science techniques.
3) Build existing relationship between James Cook University, Torres Strait Regional Authority and local communities in Torres Strait. Unfortunately the timing wasn’t ideal to spot and catch dugongs, so we had to cut the trip short and schedule a new trip to September when the conditions are supposed to be better.
Although no dugong was caught during this field trip, some important outcomes were generated from the trip including:
1) key information on the best season, tide, and weather to spot and catch dugongs around Mabuiag Island,
2) stronger relationship between JCU researcher, rangers and Mabuiag community members,
3) a protocol to catch dugongs in Torres Strait , and
4) a series of suggestions on ways to improve future dugong research in the Torres Strait .
April-
30th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation, Goa India.
In April I was fortunate enough to go to India to attend the Annual Sea Turtle Symposium. The aim of this symposium was to bring together scientists, experts, practioners, researchers and students from around the world to promote the wider global movement under the umbrella of sea turtle conservation. This year's symposium theme was “the world of turtles”. I presented the following papers:
Fuentes MMPB, Limpus CJ, Hamann H (2010) A systematic framework to assess the vulnerability of sea turtle’s nesting ground to climate change (Oral Presentation)
Fuentes MMPB, Cinner J (2010) Impacts of climate change to sea turtle nesting grounds: using experts’ opinions for threat prioritization (Poster)
Attending the 30th Sea turtle Symposium was a great venue to learn about the latest research on sea turtles, and provided me with ideas and insights into new research areas and knowledge gaps.
May-
Book launch at MTSRF's conference, Cairns, Australia.
Myrtle's battle against climate change, my first educational kids book was launched at the fourth Annual MTRSF conference held in Cairns 18 – 20 May 2010. The book is based on the findings of my PhD research on the impacts of climate change on the northern Great Barrier Reef green sea turtle population. Th
e main character of the book, ‘Myrtle’, is based on a real turtle that was satellite-tagged in 2008 at Mer Island (see educational material page for more details).
Ever since its launch the book has been a success and has received extensive interest from a variety of schools and institutions. The book is currently being incorporated into the school curriculum in Torres Strait, and it has been used as an educational tool in the Marine Turtle and Dugong Awareness Program kit for Papua New Guinea, which is being developed by the Sea Turtle Foundation, and by year 2/3 classrooms in State Schools in Cooktown.
June-
This June I undertook a trip to Masig Island to finalize investigating if the sponge farm being developed in Masig has any impacts on hawksbill turtles using the reefs in the region.
More esepcifically the aims of the trip was to:
1) collect information on the population structure (size and distribution) of hawksbill turtles that reside at Masig and Kodall reefs;
2) Investigate the foraging ecology of hawksbill turtles at Yorke and Kodall reefs. With a particular reference to whether they forage on Coscinoderma mathewsi a species of sponge in the order Dictyoceratida;
3)Determine if there is any interaction between hawksbill turtles and the sponge farm;
4) Train the Masig Turtle and Dugong officer and any other interested Masig community members in turtle capture, diet assessment, turtle monitoring techniques, data analysis and report writing.
During the 26 hours of search effort seventeen hawksbill turtles were sighted and ten were caught. The hawksbill turtles caught at Masig Island ranged in size from 46.5- 85cm curved carapace length. Most of the hawksbill turtles were sighted on the reef area between Yorke and Kodall Islands. Indeed, previous informal scoping with local islanders indicated that most hawksbill turtles are sighted around Kodall and Igal Islands. The lavage samples from the Hawksbill turtles caught contain a mix of food items, with primarily either algae, siliceous sponges or both with no prevalence of Coscinoderma sponges. This indicates, that the turtles caught, do not significantly interact with the sponge farm. Nevertheless, even if an interaction did occur, it would likely not negatively impact the Torres Strait hawksbill population as the numbers of turtles around Yorke Island are very small.
As no interaction was found between the hawksbill population in Torres Strait and the sponge farm no management strategy is recommended at this stage. However, it is recommended that further surveys take place in two years to determine if the sponge farm is attracting more turtles to the reef area around Yorke Island and to check whether hawksbill turtles are switching their diet to more available sponge species.
