As the Program Manager for Sea Turtle Foundation I am very excited to be heading up to Milman Island this week to give training and support to an all-female team of Rangers from the NPARC/Apudthama and Torres Strait Regional Authority Indigenous Ranger programs.
There has been much concern recently about what appears to be a serious decline in the population of hawksbill turtles of the western Pacific. Our team will be responsible for the final leg of a 6-week monitoring program that is contributing to our understanding of
population trends of nesting hawksbill and green turtles in the northern Great Barrier Reef.
A mammoth collaboration effort between the Apudthama Rangers, Sea Turtle Foundation, Queensland Government,
WWF and the Western Cape Turtle Threat Abatement Alliance has meant that together we will be able to record all turtle nesting activity on the island throughout the peak nesting season.
Our team will spend 8 nights on the remote northern island and the female rangers will learn all about monitoring marine turtles and their nests.
Sea Turtle Foundation involvement in this project has been made possible with fantastic support provided through the Norman Wettenhall Foundation.