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Last Updated: Feb 6, 2017 - 2:32:04 PM |
Bahamas National Trust (BNT) is currently focusing on learning more about the nesting behavior of the varieties of sea turtles found in Bahamian waters. Through a summer sea turtle research programme, they are involving young Bahamians in this important work to promote the survival of the animals and their role in the marine ecosystem.
Biologist Scott Johnson, Education Officer, BNT described the Trust’s week-long camp dedicated to teaching young Bahamians, especially budding young scientists, about the importance of turtle conservation and how to study the habitat in which the turtles live and breed.
“As you can see all along this stretch, this is like pristine… good beach area for a few species of turtle: hawksbills, maybe some loggerheads, maybe some green turtles. And so with teaching the kids, getting them out there and letting them have a feel as to the type of research that pro scientists do on a regular basis, to help to learn about the habitat, the biology and the ecology of sea turtles as well as other animals and try to give them a glimpse as to this is what we do and this is how we make it happen, so that we could have habitat that we could preserve for future generations for turtles and to help us out,” Mr Johnson said.
Joe Pfaller, Ph.D., student at the University of Florida, noted that there had been reports of turtle nest sightings.
“We’ve gotten reports that there have been a couple of loggerheads turtle nests here and so we want to check the beach out and see what it looked like, see what the length is, see how much available nesting area there is, see how deep the sand is and whether there’s a rock layer deep enough that the turtles can nest on top of it and also what the width of the beach is.
Pfaller indicated that there was generally limited turtle nesting on Bahamian beaches, but there was need to get data on their nesting patterns and beach suitability.
“Well, generally in the Bahamas there’s not a whole lot of turtle nesting, we have multiple different species. But what we’re trying to do is get some baseline data on the quality of some of the beaches and whether they might be available for turtles to nest on in the future. Well, what we’re really trying to do with part of this project is measure how many turtles are nesting and also how many we find in the water sort of before and then after the ban on turtle harvest. So, we want to see if by banning the turtle harvest whether we get more turtle nests and more turtles in the water,” Pfaller said.
Leading the recent Sea Turtle expedition was Shelly Cant-Woodside, Education Office, BNT, who spoke of the importance of the Trust’s sea turtle project.
“This whole project is a collaborative project between Archie Carr and the Bahamas National Trust. We do want more sea turtle research going on in the Bahamas; we want to have more sea turtle education going on in the Bahamas. People today still don’t understand why that ban was passed and it’s a very important ban, and we do need to support it. So, we came together with this collaboration for this project to help educate some Bahamian youth, actually getting them actively involved in some of the research as well, because you never know, we might have some budding sea turtle researchers. But also the data that we’re collecting is quite important. It will show, hopefully, whether our beaches are still healthy enough to be able to sustain sea turtle nesting and we would like to know if more sea turtles nest in the future,” Cant-Woodside said.
Joe Pfaller explained that his advisors at the University of Florida are Karen Bjorndal and Allen Bolton, who researching sea turtles in the Bahamas since the 1970’s in partnership with Bahamas National Trust and it was Bjorndal and Bolton who sent him to work with the camp. Noting that he had been doing sea turtle work since he was fifteen, Pfaller offered a wealth of information on the subject.
“Sea turtles lay on average 120-150 eggs, it’s quite a lot actually, and they’ll lay in multiple nests a year so they’re putting 300 to 500 eggs in the ground every season that they nest. And of those eggs, some of them don’t hatch at all but most of them generate hatchlings and those hatchlings are very vulnerable to all sorts of predators— raccoons, and birds, and fish, and so many of those little hatchlings don’t make it past the first year. And so our best guesses on what the percentage of the hatchlings actually make it to adulthood is right around 1 in 1000, something like that. So what that means is those adult turtles that live those 30 years to maturity are really valuable to the sea turtle population. So when we catch those, or eat those or we catch them in our shrimp trawlers or long-line fisheries, the loss is those big adult turtles are taking a really big blow to the sea turtle population.
Scott Johnson expanded on the subject and the importance of the BNT research. “This data (collected in the sea turtle camp) will help to show whether the beaches are good for sea turtle nesting. There is a belief basically that sea turtles don’t particularly like nesting in the Bahamas. Looking at the research compared to other countries, it does show that sea turtles don’t really choose the Bahamas for nesting. Really we’re getting the teenagers. They come here when they’re a little bit older to feed ‘cause we have excellent feeding grounds for sea turtles.But some researchers actually believe that before people started eating turtles a lot that the Bahamas probably was once upon a time a very important nesting site for sea turtles. And so with the ban having been passed, we’re interested to see if we’re going to get more and more sea turtles nesting on Bahamian beaches.”
Scott Johnson was optimistic about the effects of the camp on participating students
“All the students definitely have a high level of enthusiasm…This is a great opportunity for them. I do see a few students that show that in the future they may actually move towards science research and conservation, so that’s a really good start. They jump into the sand, they dig, they ask plenty good questions, ‘What types of species of turtles that we have here? How big can they grow? Is there any type of natural predation that occurs on them? What’s the mortality rate?’ These are some of the questions that some of the students do ask; so, that’s really a good sign that young people definitely are interested in Bahamian ecology and studying Bahamian habitats.”
Student Aaaliyah Wilson, who is a member of the BNT Discovery Club at her school, confirmed Scott Johnson’s belief that the participants were enjoying the sea turtle camp activities.
“Yes, I am enjoying it. I would definitely recommend it to other Bahamians. I first heard about this programme from Scott. He was telling us all the cool stuff he does and he was explaining his work and I just thought that it would be really exciting to try it, ‘cause I never tried it and it was new to me so I said ‘give it a try’. Turns out its actually pretty good. This camp teaches you about invasive species. I didn’t really know that sea turtles were invasive and I didn’t know how many eggs they lay and how big they are and all the different types and where they come from. So it’s pretty cool.” Wilson said that she was thinking of learning more about the subject.
Keno Clarke, another Discovery Club member spoke similarly. “In this project we come and research on turtles and we document the data so that we can learn more about them. I started Discovery Club at a early age and I kept with it into my high school years and my teacher introduced me to this camp. In my adulthood, I plan to make it a part of my career,” Clarke said.
That the teachings of the sea turtle camp were meeting fertile ground is evident in the comments of Chanae Barr, a student from Nassau Christian Academy.
“Right now we are learning about sea turtles; their habitat, how they reproduce, and right now we’re going to look at what they eat and their habitat. We’re trying to find where their habitat is and what they eat; mostly crustaceans, jellyfish and other water creatures. It’s been really fun. All of us are being cooperative and just having a fun time. I feel that I should learn more about the environment and help this country ‘cause we need to preserve our ecosystem. I see myself studying marine life in college and just the ecosystem.
Scott Johnson explained the camp is part of the Bahamas National Trust’s Navigators Programme, one of the organization’s several afterschool initiatives.
“It’s easy for the Bahamas National Trust to call upon students that are already involved in some of our programmes and these are students who we are basically nurturing their skills. They’ve been a part of our programme; some of them for years, some of them are newcomers, but we’re trying to nurture their skills all the way through until they reach employment age, so anybody who is interested in doing serious research we can help guide them into that career. For other students who don’t necessarily go into that career, we’re hoping that our Navigators Programme still would just nurture students who are more aware of the Bahamian environment, and that’s the whole purpose of the Navigators Programme particularly,” Johnson said.
Johnson added that the Navigators Programme is designed especially for high school students and runs throughout the year in some form. School may contact the Bahamas National Trust to find out how their students, particularly those who are interested in the environment, can get involved.
Faithful to its mandate is to promote the conservation and protection of the historic and natural resources The Bahamas, has had many successes. With a variety of partners, BNT has rescued the Bahamian flamingo colony from the brink of extinction and saved the native iguanas and shearwaters from invasive mice on Allen Cay. The Trust also oversees the development and management of 27 National Parks, which encompass over a million acres of marine and terrestrial habitats. Based on the feedback from the 2013 sea turtle camp, its drive to teach young Bahamian environmental stewardship adds another success story to the Trust’s record of achievements.

© Copyright 2013 by thebahamasweekly.com
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