Natucate
Conservation: Monitoring endangered sea turtles
Supporting our volunteer project in the Seychelles involves daily beach patrols: Monitoring sea turtles requires looking for any kind of nesting sign, resulting from the night before. Learn more in our blog
Our species conservation project in the Seychelles is dedicated to the conservation of the local flora and fauna on North Island – a true island paradise, with renaturation works and intensive methods to protect the endangered sea turtles and land tortoises from extinction.
To monitor the endangered sea turtles, each morning a team of volunteers sets off to a beach patrol on North Island to look out for signs of nesting activities which occurred during the night before.
Monitoring sea turtles – signs:
-
“Emergence” – if a female turtle arrives on the island to nest but decides that the area is not appropriate and gets back to the water. This means that she will most likely return in the following night to a close by area to try again.
-
A nest – in case she decides that she has found the perfect spot or would nest everywhere
-
Hatching – when the baby turtles hatch and run towards the open sea! Observing the actual hatching process is difficult because it mostly occurs during the night and only takes about 20 min. But females and nests can be seen almost every morning – especially on West Beach.
You would like to learn more about turtle conservation and volunteer opportunities offered by Natucate? Then take a look at our information page about volunteering with turtles!
