2nd ASEAN Symposium and Workshop on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. Click here

World’s first Trans-Boundary Marine Park between Sabah, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Introduction to the Turtle Island Heritage Protected Area (TIHPA)

History in the Development Of The Sabah - Philippines TIHPA

Management Objectives of the TIHPA

Institutional arrangements

Key Initiatives

Educational Goals Initiative Marked For Critical Funding

Research Objectives and Strategies

Economic Opportunities

Expected Deliverables

News Around the Region

Sharp decline in Turtle population

Turning to a Turtle Haven

2nd ASEAN Symposium and Workshop on
Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation

SESSION 2: Nesting and Foraging Populations

ABSTRACTS

 

Ashmore Reef (12( 15' S, 123( 05' E) is shelf-edge platform coral reef located on the Sahul Banks on Australia’s north-west continental shelf, approximately 800 km West of Darwin, Asutralia and 150 km south of Roti Island, Indonesia.

Between 1996 and 1998, 334 turtles were captured, tagged and released in the foraging grounds. The green turtle, Chelonia mydas was the most abundant species (91.5%), followed by the loggerhead, Caretta caretta (7.0%) and hawksbill, Eretmochelys imbricata (1.5%) turtles. Green turtles ranged in size from small juveniles to mature adults, although 93% of the green turtles captured were of immature size (mean = 54.87 cm ccl , median = 48.05, sd = 14.76, range = 38.2-99.1, n = 304). Of the 23 adult green turtles captured, 21 were mature males. The loggerhead turtles ranged in from large juvenile to adult turtles size (mean = 77.16 cm ccl, sd = 6.99, range = 63.1-92.3, n = 27). Hawkbsills had a mean size of 43.52 cm ccl (sd = 8.09, range = 37.3-57.4, n =5). Sixteen growth rates from green turtles (size range 40-60cm ccl), with recapture intervals greater than 11 months, had a mean of 3.79 cm ccl/yr (sd = 1.34, range = 1.39-5.88, n = 16). Growth rates from three large immature loggerheads indicate that growth is less than 0.5 cm/yr. Gastric lavage results revealed that the diet of the green turtles was dominated by the seagrsss Thalassia hemprichii which occurs intertidally on the reef flat and sandbanks.

Ashmore Reef is an important feeding area for green and loggerhead turtles and to a lesser extent hawksbill turtles. Studies at Ashmore Reef complement current studies near Darwin, both of which will provide important data for foraging turtles in the eastern Indian Ocean in the near future.

¹Faculty of Science, Northern Territory University, Australia.
²Parks Australia North, Australia.