The Turtle ID project

A little background to the project: Nusa Penida Marine Protected Area approach: CTC Coral Triangle Center (environmental NGO) has 3 objectives:

(1) biodiversity protection

(2) sustainability of fisheries

(3) sustainability of marine tourism

Concern has also been raised about the burgeoning tourism industry and the ability to regulate and enforce tourist carrying capacities on reefs given the number of informal and off-island operators.

During my time at Indo Ocean Project, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by the most inspirational, dedicated ocean lovers. Alongside Vera and Serena's passion and drive for the project, we successfully launched the Nusa Penida Turtle ID Project and began our preliminary assessment of the Turtles around Nusa Penida.

Aims of the study: This project will investigate the status, habitat use and behaviour trends of the adult Green and Hawksbill Turtles that inhabit Nusa Penida. Findings will provide valuable information to the CTC to implement management actions around Nusa Penida. (Note this awesomeness: Since the release of this project, it has now been implemented in Bira Sulawesi).

As mentioned in previous studies, recognition of individuals within a population is key for behavioral and ecological studies. It can be used to study residency, movement, foraging patterns and population size and is particularly advantageous in studies of such an endangered species. This research aims to fill in the gaps where the population of sea turtles is uncertain around the different dive sites around Nusa Penida. Upon first visual inspection it appears there are more turtles inhabiting the North of the Island. Additionally, population numbers are predominantly represented by Hawksbills.

Our research project aims to build upon, and add value to, existing datasets to complete these gaps in knowledge.

We aim to :

(1) Assess the resident turtle population

(2) Examine habitat use of Green and Hawksbills around Nusa Penida

(3) Determine patterns of migratory and foraging behaviour of Green and Hawksbills.

Our research outputs will be provided to CTC staff and industry bodies to improve management of threats to Green and Hawksbill. How? We are currently using a non intrusive form of identifying turtles sighted whilst diving or snorkeling in Nusa Penida. Photo-ID is being integrated into citizen science to gather more sightings and data on Green and Hawksbill turtles. Using I3S software we have been able to develop a database of individual facial scute fingerprints. This method is not only less costly but far more practical and faster than other methods such as tagging which has a high loss rate. The database we currently have contains both a left and right information such as Habitat, Activity, sex (if possible), size, depth and any distinguishing features on the turtle (such as chunks out of carapace).

PROJECT UPDATE:

Written by Indo Ocean Project on the April 5th 2022.

The MOU between Marine Megafauna Foundation and Indo Ocean Project has been signed!

This awesome collaboration means that all our previously collected ID turtle data from the years 2018-2021 will be uploaded into their global Internet of Turtles database! An exciting moment for IOP, showing that hard work and passion always pay off.

We will continue to provide more turtle ID shots in the future through our Citizen Science efforts and contribute to research and data collection on Penida megafauna.