Cousine Island in the Seychelles

By Jax Bath

Every summer in the southern hemisphere, islands of the tropics and countries bordered by water experience turtle season. This is when female turtles leave the safety of the water to attempt to lay their eggs. Turtles have been doing so for millions of years and it is quite extraordinary that these water dwelling reptiles use this specialised system in order to ensure the survival of their species. In last week’s ocean story, I wrote about the female turtles of Cousine Island in the Seychelles.

Cousine is a small granitic island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, 4 degrees south of the equator. It is an important breeding habitat for the critically endangered Hawksbill turtle and also one of few sites where they breed during the day. On this island, we would begin our turtle walks at 6am and undertake our last at 6pm. Walking up and down a stretch of beach on a tropical island may seem idyllic, and it is, but it is also harder work than one might imagine.

One of the objectives of these walks is to try to ensure we don’t miss a turtle laying. Missing nests is unfortunately an inevitability, but doing so can cost you three hours of your day as you dig around the nesting site in order to locate the eggs. On Cousine Island, we would mark every nest with a GPS and a set of poles to ensure we could monitor it and fence it at the 50-day mark. If the eggs have been laid in an area below the highwater mark, or one known for erosion or a high ghost crab density, we had to move the nest.

Moving nests is ideally done as soon as the female lays. Eggs are caught, counted and then placed carefully in a bucket with a layer of sand at the bottom. When they first come out, these eggs feel like ping-pong balls and are fairly flexible, which makes sense given that they drop 20–30cm down into the hole mother turtle has dug.

Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 17)