Making great tracks with sea turtles

FRED'S PASS RURAL SHOW FEATURE

IT’S not often you get the opportunity to be up close and personal with one of the Northern Territory’s rare and natural phenomena, the egg laying ritual of the fascinating sea turtles.

Middle Year students from Kormilda College incorporate this extraordinary annual adventure as part of their science curriculum, which is hosted by local company Sea Darwin.

The tours are conducted around the lunar cycle and start with an hour and a half speedy boat ride over to Bare Sand Island in the late afternoon.

Students then explore the remote sandy environment with guided walks, an outback dinner and a magical sunset before their guides ‘introduce’ them to the nesting grounds of the Flatback and Olive Ridley turtles.

There they witness the female turtles crawl up from the Sea turtles are a rare and natural phenomena in the Territory beach leaving their distinctive ‘turtle tracks’ to dig their nests and lay eggs.

This hands-on, interactive tour involves the students in the research program that is being undertaken to learn more about the turtles, which are vulnerable to extinction.

Charles Darwin University commenced the research project on Bare Sand Island over 20 years ago that gathers data to help turtle conservation, estimate population size and determine threats to their survival.

Kormilda students get involved in counting the hatched eggs in turtle nests, monitoring eggs that failed to hatch, taking nest temperatures and use GPS units to locate and record turtle nest sites.

Bare Sand Island and its surrounding area has an interesting and unique war history that had, up until recently, many buried bombs and mines.

Sea Darwin recently launched new interpretative signage on the Island that recounts the history and the natural wonder of the amazing sea turtles.

More information about other Kormilda tours can be found at the school’s stand at the Fred’s Pass Rural Show. Komilda College offers students an opportunity to get out and enjoy nature Getting up close and personal with a sea turtle