The TurtleCare Rainbow Beach team waited patiently on the beach alongside the nest of 88 sea turtle eggs through March to ensure the latest nest of Green Turtle hatchlings made a safe journey to the ocean.
Hatching occurs anytime from 55 to 75 days depending on weather conditions and carers and volunteers have kept a night-time vigil over the nest from the eggs 55-day milestone.
The team takes three hour shifts each night even in difficult weather with the reward seeing or just knowing that these endangered hatchlings have been given a chance at survival.
After storms, rain and wind, the nest finally ‘ran’ on 10 March with 78 of the 88 Green Turtle eggs hatching safely.
Jan Waters from TurtleCare Rainbow Beach said all 78 hatchlings emerged within three minutes.
Here are some turtle facts from Mon Repos where Jan recommends people visit to get more information.
Three species of turtle nest on Mon Repos beach; loggerhead, flatback and green.
It’s easy to tell the hatchlings of these species apart:
Loggerhead hatchlings are uniform in colour looking grey when dry, before showing off their real brown colour once they hit the water.
Flatback hatchlings are the largest of these three species. They have a grey carapace with each scute outlined in black and are pale underneath, they also have beautiful blue eyes.
Green hatchlings are a bit like the crazy cousins, they are cute, fast, and active. These hatchlings are black to dark brown and have white margins around their flippers and carapace.
One thing these hatchlings all have in common is that they find the ocean by using the lowest, naturally brightest light horizon out over the ocean at night.
Having dark night skies is very important so these little threatened species can safely find their way.
TurtleCare Rainbow Beach is part of Cooloola Coastcare and the contact for the Rainbow Beach Turtle nesting season is Jan Waters on 0429 481 490
According to Jan, every turtle is vital to the survival of the species.
TurtleCare Rainbow Beach Facebook page is the message board about marine turtle sightings, nesting and hatching on Rainbow Beach and in nearby waters. Our volunteers walk the beaches looking for evidence of turtle nests to help protect them from predators. Trained turtles carers save at-risk turtle eggs by relocating nests to prevent large tides exposing the eggs.
