01 Nov 2023

Tetepare Island - the Island of Three Turtles

This morning we visited the conservation community on Tetepare Island where the people have been internationally-recognised for their turtle conservation.

Sea turtles around the world are endangered and there are three sea turtle species nesting and feeding in the waters around Tetepare. Grazing on the seagrass meadows in the shallows off the island are 1.5-metre-long Green Turtles - so named because of the colour of their fat. While male sea turtles of all speciess never leave the ocean, females come ashore each year to lay around 80-200 pingpong ball-sized eggs - many of which are dug up by natural predators, making survival rates low unless the nests are protected, as on Tetepare.

A smaller turtle - the 1-metre-long Hawkesbill Turtle also feeds and nests around Tetepare, prefering the coral reefs where it feeds on sea urchins, soft corals and sponges - a tough diet as its food is riddled with silica spicules (we learn that half the weight of a Hawkesbill Turtle's stomach is glass spicules!)

On the morning we arrived, on one of the back beaches two females of the largest and rarest sea turtles were also ashore laying eggs. These giants were Leatherback Turtles, they are the size of a small Clinker Dinghy - in fact when at sea they look just like an up turned dinghy - a dinghy 2.8-metres long! They feed on jellyfish, but unfortunately today the sea is also full of our discarded plastic bags which they can mistake for food. Many die a painful death with their stomachs full of our refuse.

After visiting the island and learning about the conservation efforts to save and protect sea turtles, we resolved to never to buy tortoiseshell jewellery or to throw away another plastic bag!

Images from file © F. Wardle & G. Scott-Douglas, Heritage Expeditions