Climate change impacts on Hawksbill turtles on Milman Island, northern Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Research into the demographics of nesting hawksbill turtles has been conducted annually at Milman Island for the past 16 years, the longest hawksbill study of its kind. This long term data set reveals annual variability and population trends, and is assisting managers to understand the impacts of both ongoing and emerging threats to the population. Three years ago scientists also began investigating the impacts of global climate change on the nesting habitat at Milman.

In January 2010 a team of Sea Turtle Foundation researchers and volunteers continued this study as a collaborating partner with the QLD Dept of Resource Management. Our team spent a month on the island monitoring nesting hawksbill and green sea turtles.

As part of the project our researchers fitted one hawksbill turtle with a satellite tracking device funded by the Sydney Aquarium Conservation Fund. You can follow our turtle’s homeward migration here.

The Milman Island project may also prove to be a catalyst for turtle conservation among Indigenous communities that traditionally hunt sea turtles. Working hard for turtle conservation in communities along the west coast of Cape York are the Apudthama Land and Sea Rangers. Cape York Sustainable Futures brought Rangers across to Milman for training in monitoring and tagging of nesting turtles. These skills build on the Rangers’ other activities that are showing positive outcomes for sea turtles in the region, including management of nest raiding feral animals and removal of ghost nets.

Unfortunately a visit by Torres Strait pupils from Thursday Island High School was cancelled due to a persistent cyclone in the area; hopefully we will have better luck getting them out there next year.

Project Sponsors
This project was supported (in part) by funds from the Project AWARE Foundation, the Sydney Aquarium Conservation Fund, Cape York Sustainable Futures and Sea Swift Shipping.