Cooloola Coastcare

Turtle Spotter

Turtle Spotters play a key role in the TurtleCare program as they are the people on the front line watching for turtles coming up on the beach to lay their eggs. The majority of nests are laid at night and Cooloola Coastcare doesn't have enough volunteers to watch the beach all night, every night. Given this information, our Turtle Spotters will be doing the vast majority of their work bright and early each morning as they walk the beach looking for tracks. This page describes the procedures used for Turtle Spotters when they find a set of tracks or if they happen to spot a turtle at night, which is likely if you were to participate in the first ever "Turtle Census" happening on the nights of 17 December through the morning of 31 December.

What To Do if You Find a Turtle Track

Take Photos of the Track (see examples below)

- Take a photo looking from the water’s edge towards the dune showing both the up and down tracks
- Take a photo of the tracks from above the nest looking towards the water
- Take a closeup photo of the track looking straight up the track towards the nest. This will allow research volunteers to identify the species of the turtle that made the track
- You might also take a photo of the track from above to help in IDing the species
- Take Photos of the Nesting Site
- Take a photo from the beach side of the nest showing the entire nest area
- Take a photo from above of the entire nest area

Capture GPS location of where you think the nest is located

- Using your mobile device or a dedicated GPS device, grab the coordinates of where you believe the nest is located. This can be done with an app directly on your mobile device or by turning on location services on your camera so that photos are tagged with GPS coordinates.
  - Android
    - Learn to manage location services on your Android device
    - Learn to turn on geotagging on your Android phone or tablet.
  - iOS
    - Learn to turn on geotagging on your iOS phone or tablet.
- What does a GPS coordinate look like?
  - -25.86025, 153.07711 - Decimal Degrees, Preferred
  - N 47°38' 56.26” W 122°20'53.20” - Degrees, Minutes, Seconds
- Tip for improving accuracy of geotagging on your mobile device
  - When out walking the beach, consider turning on a GPS tracking app that will map your moves as you walk. This makes sure your device is talking to the GPS satellites.

Send photos and GPS coordinates to turtlecare@cooloolacoastcare.org.au

- Do not text your photos as all of the location data gets stripped from the images.

Cross out the track with two lines parallel to the water to show other turtle walkers that you have found this track.

Example 1

Taken from the beach side showing both the up and down tracks headed towards the nest.

This shot shows the upwards track approaching the nest area showing good identifiable features that will help to find the nest later. Notice the point of grass sticking out and the log in the middle of the nesting area.

Looking from the up side of the nest towards the water. You can see both the approaching and leaving tracks which can help assess where the egg chamber is located. In this case the return track is on the left because it goes over the other track. You can also tell from the tracks in this photo that this was a green turtle.

Looking down on the nest with both approach and departure easily identified.

Another shot Looking directly down on the nest. Helps to show where the turtle may have created an egg chamber and also shows the direction in which the turtle left.

This shot shows the nest from directly in front of the nest. It is good to get as many angles as you can.

Example 2

This is a great shot from the dune above the nest. It shows where the body pit was located and shows both approach and departure tracks really well. You can tell the turtle approached from the track on the right because the track on the left goes over the track on the right.

We can tell this is a green turtle from this photo of the tracks. You can also tell this is the return track as the piles of sand are on the back side of where the photo is taken and we can see where it crosses the approach track at the top of the image.

From this shot you can see that the dune is quite steep so the turtle had to work really hard. Again, get shots from as many angles as possible.

Example 3

This shot, taken from the water side up the beach shows that the turtle climbed the coloured sand cliff and dug her egg chamber 4 or 5 meters up on the cliff. You can also see in this photo that the turtle approached and departed on almost the same track.

This photo is taken from the base of the dune looking up at where the nest has been created.

This photo shows the turtle returning to the water. You can see a bit of the approaching tracks on the right and you see a lone track to the water. It is likely that the tide was in a bit farther when the turtle came up to lay as the older tracks have been washed away by the tide.

This is a side angle of where the body pit has been created. You can see the "fluff up" of the sand the turtle flung back over the nest to hide the egg chamber.

In this shot the photographer climbed the dune to get a shot back towards the water. you can see a great deal of fluff up indicating that it is likely a nest was laid. It is not recommended that volunteers climb the dunes past Mudlo Rocks to take photos or to attempt to find egg chambers. It is too risky as these dunes are quite unstable.

This shot makes it easy for us to determine that this is a green turtle.

Random Examples

This is a classic example of a Loggerhead turtle track using a crawl stroke approach where each leg goes forward after the other. The alternate.

Another good shot showing an approach of a Loggerhead turtle. This particular turtle wandered all over the area looking for a good spot and just returned back to the water as it was just too rocky to dig.

Another example of a set of green turtle tracks. Green turtles move both front flippers at the same time, like a breast stroke swimmer.

Another good shot showing approach and departure tracks. Which ones are the departure tracks? If you said the ones on the left you would be correct.

Example of a good shot showing both approach and departure tracks. This track was a turn around as the turtle didn't find a good spot to dig a body chamber. She likely came back later to a slightly different spot on the beach to lay her eggs.

What if you find a live turtle?

Participating in a Turtle Census

A "Turtle Census" is a Citizen Science event that always takes place the last two weeks of December. The goal of this event is to meet each turtle as she comes up the beach to lay her eggs. Each turtle:

is checked for the presence of tags on both front flippers. If no tags are present, new tags will be attached. In each case, tagged or untagged, tag numbers are recorded so the turtle can be tracked.
has the shell (carapace) measured from the base of the neck down the ridge of the shell to the bottom end by the tail.
receives a health check. This involves looking for any damage to their body including, missing flipper parts, bites out of the shell, damage to the head, barnacles and such on the shell and general health items. Everything is documented so the next time the turtle is found, scientists and volunteers will know that turtle's history.

Census Process

The census involves volunteers and scientists walking the beach from dark to dawn, and in some instances, driving the beach because of a lack of access to walkers or distances that are just too long to walk. Generally, for Coastcare, we try to break the night into four, three hour shifts. Volunteers can walk longer than a single shift if they choose to do so.

When walking on the beach,

Turn off all lights and walk slowly. If you feel unsafe, you can turn on your torch and place your fingers over the lens to diffuse the light.
look for black rocks that appear to be moving. If you think you have spotted a turtle, stop and freeze. Turtles have great night vision and will see you if you are moving. Stay still until they go farther up the beach.
Call one of the Turtlecare Turtle Research Volunteers and let them know you have a live turtle providing them with a location
Use a handheld torch or briefly flick your lights on to check the status of the turtle’s progress up the beach
Wait until the turtle is well into digging a body pit before approach at all
If it is safe to do so, the turtle can be approached once she has started digging an egg chamber.
Approach from the rear and stay away from the head until she starts dropping eggs into the egg chamber

If it is night time and:

Turtle is going up the beach to lay eggs

- Immediately turn off lights and wait for turtle to continue up the beach
- Wait a few minutes before turning lights back on to give the turtle time to move up the beach
- Call one of the Turtlecare Turtle Research Volunteers and let them know you have a live turtle providing them with a location
- Use a handheld torch or briefly flick your lights on to check the status of the turtle’s progress up the beach
- Wait until the turtle is well into digging a body pit before approach at all
- If it is safe to do so, the turtle can be approached once she has started digging an egg chamber.
- Approach from the rear and stay away from the head until she starts dropping eggs into the egg chamber

Turtle is heading down the beach towards the water

- Turn your lights off and wait for her to get to the water
- If you leave your lights on, there is a chance that the turtle will turn and follow your lights.

If it is day time:

Stop and watch the turtle to see if it is going up to lay or returning to the water.

If it is going up to lay

- Let it continue up the beach
- Call a Turtlecare Research Volunteer providing them the location of the turtle
- Wait for the research volunteer to arrive
- Help in any way that the research volunteer suggests

If it is returning to the water

- Patiently wait for it to return to the water

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