destination turtle nj quinn bl kojis 1985

8/7/2019 Destination Turtle NJ Quinn BL Kojis 1985

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simultaneous heaving of herpowerful fore flippers. MausBuang villagers often uselights to guide the turde to asuitable nesting location. Theactual nesting process con-forms to the steroryped pat-tern shared by all sea turtles.At Maus Buang clutch sizesrange from 12 eggs by the firstnesting turtles of the season inOctober to 145 eggs during theseason peak in January. Theaverage number of clutch eggsis 98 which is higher than thetlpical clutch size in otherparts of the world. Eggs arewhite, usually spherical andabout 53 millimetres in dia-meter. Their average incuba-tion period ranges from 56 to65 days with a hatching suc-cess rate of about two-thirds tothree-quafiers. Hatchlings are55 63 millimetres in length.Leatherbacks are noted forproducing fewer but largereggs and hatchlings comparedwith other sea turdes.The sea turtle populationcan be based only on an esti-mate of the total number ofmatufe nesting females. Fe-males or their nesting trackscan be counted readily. Malesdo not leave the water and arerarely identified ar sea. Imma-tufe animals are similarlyimpossible to count at sea. The

minimum wodd population ofbreeding female learherbackto be estimated in 1977 bet-ween 29,000 and 40,000, allow-ing for undiscovered or unin-vestigated nesting beaches.More recently. a surveycarriedout by the WorldVildlife Fundhas confirmed and exrendedthe eadier report, raising theestimate of breeding femaleIeatherbacks to more than100.000. This ligure may be anunderestimate as many areasof Mexico and Melanesia havenot been surveyed.Although the total popula-tion of leatherbacks is largerthan originally rhoughr, it re-mains true that breeding pop-ulations are mosdy ofrelatively small size (with onlya few hundred females nestingannually', are widely scatteredthroughout the tropics, andare often subject to hear.yexpioitation for food. Thereare only four documentedmajor leatherback nesringareas with more than 1,000females nesdng annually. Thechelonery at Maus Buang isnot as big as these but is stitlimpressive.Although the esrimaredwodd population of rhespecies has tripled, it is stillregarded as endangered byboth the United States Depanl

, ment of the. Interior'and rhe,,., -Convcntlon 6n fgacle in.Sn-:' ,dangered.; ,,Species: irf ;, pls1a ,and Fauna.Prospects for the continuedl,: strrvival oith" rru*.t*uO.ae '.

tle, olive ridley or'hawksbilland there is virtually no inter-national trade in leatherbackparts or derivatjves. Adultleatherbacks are not con-sumed by man as much asother species since their oilyflesh is generally consideredunpalarable,In Morobe Province, adultleatherback are seldom killedor eaten. However. rhe eggs ofobserved nesting leatherbacksare taken by vilJagers whocamp on the beach. About 70per cenr of rhe eggs harvestedgo to Lae marker, 20 per centare eaten by families and 10per cenr are left for hatching.After the eggs are collected

trrtel{, afe reburied at anothelocation'for three' or 6out 6"until a large cache exisrs. Thare then ransported to Lmarket where each bringsprice of 10''toea,:Neits frwhich eggs ,have ' beremoved are marked wsticks.Eggs and hatchlings asomedmes taken bv crapigs, sharks and crocodileAdult learherbacks mayprey to sharks' a*d crocodilwhile nesting. The trackscrocodiles are often sealong the nesting beachMaus Buang and occasionathe turtles are attacked akilled. About three turrles a


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A baby turtle in its natunl environment; insetclockwise from below: newly-hatchedturtles collected from the beach; a villagerillegally gathering eggs for home consumption;a dug-out egg chamber; measuring the shell ofa female leatherback.


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Top left: A villager killing a greenturtle at Green lsland; top right:children with conse rvationposfers at Labutali Beach:below: returning to the waterafter laying eggs.

taken each season. They areeither dragged into the sea orto the nearbyestuary, with thecarcass being rarelyleft on thebeach for more than a fewdays.Villagers report that thereare fewer turtles nesting thanin the past. This decline is pro-bably due to the excessiveegg harvest.Traditionally in Papua NewGuinea the right to fish certainreefs and beaches was con-trolled by individuals, families,clans orchiefs. Sometimes, theright to fish particular speciessuch as turdes, fish anddugongs belonged ro par-ticular families within a vill,ageand theyregulated the exploit-ation of the resource.In the Maus Province, egggathering is a traditionalprac-tice with associated rules, butalong the Morobe coast regu-lations have disappeared asvillagers have found a marketfor the eggs at Lae.Ownership rights rely heav-ily on respect for traditionalauthoriry within the villages.\Xhile transgressions werehandled by force in pre-colonial times, today there islittle physical enforcement byvillages of traditional boun-daries. Therefore, it has beennecessary to introduce Wild-life Management Areas.

Special legislation waspassed by the PNG House ofAssembly in April 1974 tocreate large tracts of naturalwildlife habitats. These re-main in customary ownership,but people co-operate withthe government to managethe wildlife and its habitat forcontinued production andpreservation. Each area isgoverned by a Wildlife Committee appointed by peopleliving near the managementarea. The Committee's func-tion is to introduce andenforce ruleswhich are under-stood by the people. Its decis-ions are recommended to theMinister of the Environmentand as soon as the govern-

ment gazettes these areas theCommittee's rules becomelaw.Under the Vildlife Manage-mentAfea system the onus forconservation work is placedon the traditional owners.Through this system, the\fildlife Division has given tradi-tional landowners rhe legalframework to reinforce tradi-tional understandings.Management areas formarine turtles have been setup in other areas ofPNG suchas Crown and Long Islands. Inthese areas most people wereeither symparhetic or indif-ferent to the \Tildlife Manage-ment Area. Llnfortunately,although the need for.turtle

conservation is appreciated bthe Maus Buangvillage eldersthey do not possess the knowledge nor perhaps the villagesupport to implement a \7ildlife Management Area.However, in the 7983-84nesting season we initiated aprogram that would buy eggsas the turrle laid them for thecurrent market price of 10 toeaper egg. The eggs would thenbe reburied at another loca-tion near the village so that thevillagers could watch to makesure that others would not digup the nest. As a result of ourinterest, a vlllage law wascreated declaring certain sec-tions of the beach taboo forcollecting eggs. \7ith the sup-port of the Papua New GuineaUniversity of Technology wewill continue our work thisyear. Perhaps we will see youwalking the beach in search ofthese rare turtles.

NormanJ. Quinn is from the FisheriesDepartment of the Papua New GuineaUniversity of Technologv in Lae andBarbara L. Koiis is from the Univer-sity's Deparrment of Chemical Tech-nology.

destination turtle nj quinn bl kojis 1985

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