Turtle Rookery

Arriving in Karratha August of last year, I didn’t know about the turtles nesting on the beachs here. It wasn’t until a new friend told me about the turtle monitoring program in November, that I googled all about it. By this time the season had already started and I was working 12-13day weeks, but it didn’t stop me from searching for turtles that might be nesting. I spent days, searching a beach that shares the same name of a beach about 50mins away looking for turtle tracks. Days. Only to find out I was searching the wrong beach so one day I drove to the right beach, and found the much smaller main beach the Flatback Turtles nest on and boy, did I find tracks.

That first time I was walking the path to Bells Beach, I passed a lady who told me if i was quick, “there’s one nesting on the beach now”. I ran. It was worth the prickles in my feet. Because that evening I saw 9 turtles make their way up the beach to dig their nests. I left with the last rays of light, elated, buzzing and on cloud 9000. It was the first day of 2022 and what I hoped was a good omen for the year ahead.

I returned early the next morning in the hopes of seeing more turtles and found my first hatchlings. They had already emerged from their nest and were making their way down to the water. What a thrill to watch them race to sea. They hoon, clambering over rocks, dips in the beach, struggle through clumps of seaweed while avoiding the predators hoping to make an easy meal.

After those first couple of days I spent every weekend there. Arriving well before sunrise while it was still dark, then as the sun would creep above the horizon, carefully walk along the beach looking for fresh tracks. Over the next couple of months I saw countless ladies (female turtles) nest and dozens and dozens of hatchlings emerge from their sandy nests to make the big journey down to the sea. It was an absolute roller coaster of emotions, but completely thrilling to experience. Sometimes you would come across a nest as the hatchlings were emerging and other times I would sit and wait for 4 hours until they came out.

Due to the great work by the West Pilbara Turtle Program,data collected has shown that Bells Beach has had the most successful turtle season since monitoring began, with over 380 nests recorded and over 80% of nests hatched. More research is being conducted as to why it was such a successful season and factors like weather, we had no cyclones this year, could a contributor.

It was such an amazing time and I look forward to next season as I plan to spend my time wandering the beaches on the lookout for what it has to offer.