The Marine Research Foundation (MRF) in Malaysia, acts as scientific advisor and implements the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s leatherback turtle project along the Huon Coast in Papua New Guinea (PNG). MRF has extensive experience in the management of marine turtle conservations projects and continues to management of the PNG leatherback turtle project since becoming involved in 2004, and now in our sixth season.

 

Leatherback turtle populations of the Western Pacific region have been of concern for a number of years, among these the population nesting along the northern coast of Papua New Guinea, but amidst this decline, the Huon coast remains one of the last key nesting sites of the species. The major threats to turtles nesting in Papua New Guinea in the past have been depredation of nests by dogs, local consumption of eggs and occasional slaughter of adult nesting females. However, since 1999, conservation efforts supported by the Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council (WPRFMC, the Council) have resulted in significant protection of adult turtles and their eggs, and importantly, the release of thousands of hatchlings by the local communities along the Huon coast.

 

This project in PNG now covers seven sites along the coast, from South to North at Sapa, Kobo, Paiawa, Kamiali, Salus, Busama and Labu Tale. Initial collaboration between the WPRFMC and the Kamiali community dates back four years to the 2003-2004 season in association with the Kamiali Integrated Development Conservation Group (KICDG). Three other sites were brought on board for the 2005-2006 season, while Kobo was a new inclusion for the start of the 2006-2007 season. Sapa and Salus were incorporated into the Project during this contract period. The Project is implemented in association with the Department of Environment and Conservation (Government of PNG), and the MAREMCO Foundation, a local fisheries-based NGO working to introduce and implement community-based management plans for natural resources. The overriding objectives of this project are to implement conservation initiatives to maximise hatchling production and on-shore survival (bamboo grids in particular), to evaluate and monitor the nesting population of leatherback sea turtles, and to work and share knowledge with local communities.

 

The Huon Coast Leatherback Project office continued to be based at the Old Yacht Club in Lae, through arrangements with the Coastal Fisheries project and MAREMCO Foundation. The project has access to jetty facilities, and is close to a fuel station and a market where supplies can be purchased. The project manager’s local email account is johnben@datec.net.pg and he handles all local logistics, payroll. The project operates two 23’ fibreglass boats each with 40 hp Yamaha engines. The larger boats provide better safety and stability and can carry a larger amount of goods or people than the 19 ft boats operated in the past. Engines are serviceds locally and continue to operate well. Field equipment (GPS units, PIT tag scanners, measuring tapes, etc) were all carried over from previous seasons.) The Project was short of PIT tags in December but Peter Dutton at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center provided a supply which would last until the end of the season. Salaries were paid in cash by the Project Manager each second week, during which he undertakook a visit to each community to ensure the Project was being implemented without significant issues, and collected and reviewed data for the previous two-week period. All data are provided on standardised data sheets (a copy is provided in Annex II) and uploaded onto computer by the Project Manger in Lae.

 

The total number of nests laid between 1st October and 1st of March 2009 (when the last nesting event was recorded) was 258, of which 210 were successful attempts which resulted in deposition of eggs, and 48 were attempt failures. Of the total 210 nests, 12 were washed away by storm waves and high tides, and one was damaged by a predator. None were poached. This low level of poaching reflects the complete buy-in of local communities into the project, and parties outside of the communities were responsible for the events. Nesting records were higher from the larger nesting sites (Labu Tale, Busama and Kamiali), with the smaller beaches contributing only 18% of all nesting records. Not a single nesting attempt was recorded at Sapa during the 2008-2009 season. Nesting was relatively quiet in early October but picked up towards the middle and continued to stay high by mid-December and peaking in January, with a substantially abrupt end of the season by the end of February.

 

This season marked the third season of compulsory deployment of bamboo grids over nests to protect them from dogs. Overall the effort has been very successful at all sites, and grids could be seen covering nests all along the coast throughout the season. The project also required that nests be dug up following incubation to determine incubation success, and this was performed for 108 nests, from which the average hatching success was calculated as 44.7%. With a total of 210 successful nesting attempts within the project beach coverage, an average clutch size of 98.4 eggs and an average incubation success of 44.7%, the total hatchling production for the 2008-2009 season from the Project site was estimated at 9,247 hatchlings (number of nests x clutch size x hatch success). The continued production of hatchlings and their safe passage to the sea provides great hope for the greater population, as in the past nearly all of these hatchlings were lost as eggs to predators or poachers, or as hatchlings to feral dogs, before they even made it to the sea. To date this project has successfully returned ot the sea over 50,000 critically endangered leatherbakc hatchlings.

 

 

 

This project is sponsored by the Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council