Marine turtle conservation

Turtle numbers are declining and conservation is essential. The Environmental Protection Agency, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, have programs in place to help protect turtles from extinction.

What you can do

• Refuse to buy sea turtle products (tortoiseshell jewellery, souvenirs, meat and eggs).
• Turn off street lights and screen house lights adjacent to sea turtle rookeries.
• Keep dogs from nesting beaches.
• Do not throw plastic bags, fishing line and other rubbish into the sea or onto the beach.
• Follow the turtle watching guidelines whenever you encounter a nesting sea turtle or hatchlings.
• Support international conservation agencies that are trying to reduce turtle harvests to ecologically sustainable levels.
• Assist turtle research and conservation by reporting dead or injured turtles to the turtle hotline (in Australia phone: 008 801 500).

Green Turtle laying eggs on Heron Island Photo: GBRMPA

Turtle watching guidelines

If you come across a turtle laying eggs, the following guidelines will enable to enjoy the experience while minimising disturbance to the turtle.

• Keep use of lights to a minimum while on the beach and around a turtle.
• Do not approach closely or shine lights on a turtle that is leaving the water or moving up the beach.
• Wait patiently until the turtle is laying eggs before shining a torch on her
• Avoid excess noise and sudden movements.
• Keep dogs away from the turtle.

Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDS)

A Turtle Excluder Device is a grid of bars, with an opening either at the top or the bottom, fitted into the neck of a prawn trawl. Prawns can fit through the bars. Large animals such as turtles and sharks are ejected through the openings.

The Australian Government passed a law in 2000, to make TEDS mandatory for the northern prawn fisheries. The use of Turtles Excluder Devices should eliminate most accidental drownings of turtles in prawn trawl nets.

In the United States, the National Marine Fisheries Service has been able to show that TEDs are effective at 'excluding up to 97% of sea turtles with minimal loss of shrimp'. An embargo by the US on Australian prawns forced the Australian Government's implementation of mandatory use of TEDS in Australian prawn fisheries.