A Loggerhead turtle can weigh anywhere between 150 to 450
kilos. If it is your job to stop the turtle you can expect bulldozer type force
pushing against your hands. The stopper, wrestler, anchor or whatever you call
the person, has the job to prevent the turtle from going back into the water
before it is tagged. We were shown a technique to stop the turtle, which is
pretty much the same as catching a footy with soft hands. Hold your hands up in
the shape of a W and place them over the eyes of the turtle. Her neck will snap
back, retracting in its shell with enormous
force. If you happen to get your fingers caught between the head and the
carapace (shell) you can easily break them. If you have your fingers anywhere
near its mouth, expect a crocodile like chomp on your pointers. At the end of
our time on Turtle Beach we became very quick at tagging so that this ‘stopper’
technique was rarely needed or perhaps for a few seconds only. If we were
caught out by an alert turtle, we would move with her sideways on our knees
through the sand until she faced back to the dunes - we could then uncover her eyes. We
were always looking to lessen the impact we had on the turtles.
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| The large head of a Loggerhead turtle |
The scribe, administrator, manager or whatever you would
call this team member, has the job to write all the data that is thrown at her/him
from all angles. You have to be aware which beach you are on at all times (1-5),
take notes on the size of the beast and jot down old or new tag numbers. This
job required extreme precision and care because this is the valuable data the
researchers are looking for; the purpose of us being on Dirk Hartog in the
first place. This turtle tagging data has been collected for the last 15 years
on DHI – they are looking for the size and health of the turtle population
nesting on Turtle Beach. Writing data down on a sheet in pitch black by the
muted light of a red head-torch is not easy.
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| Julie scribing in the dark with head torch |
The tagger is just known as the tagger. It is the taggers job to
reload the pliers with the tags, get on hands and knees in the sand, find the
spot between the first and the second scale of the front flipper and aim the
tag at the soft, squishy batwing. Hand crunching strength is
needed to make sure the tag clasps
properly. A misfire happened on the odd occasion and once or twice a tag had to
be removed. This wasn’t a pleasant feeling for the team or the turtle. Nobody
wanted to hurt these beautiful ladies at
all or as little as possible. It spurred us on to work faster, better and more
precisely.
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| Can you spot a tag? |
I must say, that night four had a special feel to it. Walking
around in star-lit serenity was magic. A thin slither of the moon
made our torches unnecessary. The weather was beautiful and temperate. Our
three man ‘Dong’ team (short for Dugong and given to us by Officer Locke as
this team were all seegrass eating vegetarians). Steve, Marigula and myself left
the troopy to tag on beach 1, 2 and 3 in a great mood. Our arrival on beach two
was met with several fresh tracks up the
beach and several turtles already returning. We swung into action and for an
hour and a half it was just turtle mayhem, tagging one after the other. Sand
was flicked by flippers, pits were fallen into, turtles were spun away from the
beach, pliers flew through the air, sweaty bodies smacked into each other and
numbers were dictated sharply into the night. We all knew what needed to be
done and we were on the go. After a short breather, we walked onto beach 1
where I could not believe how many turtles were coming and going. Frantically
we tried to keep up with the traffic jam. At one stage it became confusing
which turtle we had already tagged and we had to refer back to the long list of
recorded tag numbers. I forget how long that burst of turtle action was, but it
was tremendous being near these
prehistoric, grand ol’ ladies. When the loggerhead jam eased, we sat down on the beach having
conversations ranging from the deep and
meaningfull to the utter ridiculous. I am still trying to work out how Marigula
could see the shape of an elephant in the stars. Sometimes the short spaces of
quiet were broken by a yawn and a “sorry”.
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| Marigula admiring the grand ol' lady from a respectable distance |
Steve went to count the tracks on all five beaches and we caught
up with the carnivorous Cuvier team at beach 1 and waited for the sun to come
up. When it finally became light, tranquility was personified in all shades and
colours of the spectrum. What does that mean?
It was a ripper of a sunrise!!
In the first daylight on beach 1 it became clear what kind
of a night we had as the beach was completely covered in turtle tracks.
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| Evidence of the night we had with the ladies |
On the end of one of these tracks was one last lady turtle
laying her eggs on the beach. “aren’t you going to tag this one?” I was asked.
It just didn’t feel right. We all sat down in the sand at a respectable
distance from the laying turtle and watched her every misting move. A feeling
of calm and awe came over me and I hope to have shared that with my teammates. After a hectic night of hunting down turtles
like terriers, this turtle was not going to be tagged. She was going to
elegantly finish her natural calling. The old girl was going to be let go in peace.
Discretely we took photos of her long misting session and her return to the
water took a wonderfully long time, while her skin colours and reflections in the water, slowly became visible in the
brightening sky.
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| She was truly beautiful |
Grey Bits
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| Sometimes a rock got in the way |
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| ... she had to be patient |
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| ... waiting for the wash of a bigger wave |
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| ... and then finally disappearing into the ocean |
Some nights the tagging was a bit slow due to the turtles
numbers being low. If the decision was made to wait for a turtle to finish laying her eggs we got
comfortable by shoving our back-sides forward and backwards in the sand. This
process became known as “scoot’n”.
Turtle tagging is a physical game. I estimate that we walked
over ten kilometers mainly through soft sand every night. We climbed over
several rocky outcrops and handling a
large turtle can be very physically demanding.
On quite a few occasions a turtle raked its carapace edge
over my foot. With several hundred kilos of weight behind it, this could have
hurt easily were it not for the steel capped boots I was very pleased to be
wearing.
If you don’t like to wear sand in your boots or up your
undies, I recommend you wear long pants during the nightshift.
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| You can wear more casual gear during the day |
In the day time we were sleeping until 12 noon. Earplugs and
those airplane eye-patches could come in handy. Or you could bring two pirate
eye patches.
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| Thanks Steve for all your hard work |
Turtle tagging on Dirk Hartog Island is done in January. I
hear it is difficult to get in if you are not invited or know someone. You can
try to contact DPaW if you are keen to give turtle tagging a shot. Contact Phone (08) 9948 2226 or click on the following links www.sharkbay.org, www.dpaw.wa.gov.au for more information.
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| Thanks to all the volunteers for this unforgettable adventure |
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