Turtle nesting and net releases
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| In the following charts you can
find some statistical information about our
activities and observations |
Yearly
turtle nestings in Watamu & Malindi area
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Yearly
nestings
Sea
turtles do not nest each year, the majority of Kenya's nesting
turtles are green turtles which have been found to nesting
every 2-7 years, depending primarily on the richness of an
individual's feeding grounds. Hence, you can get cycles of sea
turtle nesting with peaks in certain years. It is difficult to
determine therefore, except over the very long term, to what
extent changes in nesting numbers is due to population change
and related human threats. Undoubtedly the nesting population
is declining in Kenya as WTW interviews with local fishermen
have found that the current nesting is about a 1/5th of what
it was 25 years ago. In 2001 WTW initiated a nest conservation
program in Malindi which contributed in part to the increase
in nestings in that year and after.
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Green turtle laying
eggs on Watamu beach
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Yearly
turtle nestings on Watamu beach - month on month
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*2002
reflects data collected up to end of November
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Nesting
season
Nesting
is generally higher in Kenya between March and August.
However, each year nesting seems to be dispersed through
different months, with variation in the peak months. Unlike
many other countries there is no clearly defined nesting
season in Kenya, this could be due to the greatly reduced
nesting population. |
Yearly
turtle net releases by WTW at
Watamu area and Mida creek.
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Net
releases
In
the latter part of 2000 WTW began a concerted education
campaign on sea turtle conservation, combined with community
development programs targeting local fishermen. These programs
were extremely successful in raising awareness on the
importance of sea turtle conservation and winning the
co-operation of fishermen. This explains the dramatic increase
in turtle net releases in 2001 and after. 2003 was a
particularly big year for releases partly because of the
inclusion of another landing site in the program, but also due
to higher numbers of foraging turtles in the area (confirmed
by fishermen and diver sightings). Hopefully this increase may
be due to the success of the net release program.
The juvenile and adult populations of sea turtles are
extremely important to protect as the survival rate of sea
turtles to adult sexual maturity is very low (1 in 1000
eggs!!) and it is in the first few months of a turtles
lifecycle that they are most at risk. So if a turtle has made
it to the juvenile phase then that turtle has high
conservation value. So WTWs program of saving the hundreds
of juvenile and adult sea turtles a year from slaughter, as a
result of net capture, is a major contribution to sea turtle
conservation in the region (the population foraging in the
Watamu area is likely to come from countries within and
perhaps beyond the West Indian Ocean region). Also of
importance is the fact that 19% of our net releases have been
of the critically endangered and rare hawksbill species. |
Tagging a turtle
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