Saturday 23 May 2015

Excuse me! Can I see some ID?

Hello trusty turtle folks!

Firstly HAPPY WORLD TURTLE DAY!!!!! Woop woop! 

Secondly lets take a quick look at our current status of events!

We are in mid-May and the season is well underway for each of the Cayman Islands, with loggerhead turtles nesting across all three islands. With each week passing more individuals are coming ashore to lay their eggs. Currently 12 nests have been identified on Grand Cayman, 4 on Little Cayman, and 4 on Cayman Brac, but with each week more nests are being found. This shows for a very promising season indeed, especially as this time last year saw only 6 nests on Grand Cayman.

How do you find these activities I hear you say and how do you I.D. the species? Well let’s sort out those queries for you… maybe once you have this knowledge you may be interested in volunteering with your local turtle team ;)!

The first step in successfully monitoring the beaches for turtle activities is to have a turtley awesomely dedicated group of volunteers that give up their free time to walk sections of beaches looking for any turtle activity, which they report to a DoE coordinator. Each year we walk a total of 1,400 miles of beach across all three islands, looking for any indications of turtle activity. These include distinct tracks and any disturbed areas of sand indicating that eggs were laid.

If you recall we have 3 species of turtles nesting in the Cayman Islands: green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles. Each has very a very distinct set of tracks which volunteers can use to identify species. Let’s take a look:

The green turtle (Pic 1), coming in at up to 5ft in length and weighing up to 700lb , crawls on to the beach leaving a very large symmetrical track pattern, where both front flippers are moved in sync. The tracks are typically deep, and can still be identified days after the initial emergence. The loggerhead (Pic 2) comes in at 3ft and weighs up to 250lb, and crawls onto the beach leaving an asymmetrical track pattern where their front flippers move alternatively, like swimming front crawl style. And finally the hawksbill (Pic 3) comes in at 3ft in length and weighs up to 150lb. Hawksbills crawl in an asymmetrical manner identical to the loggerhead, but often have a tell-tale sign: a distinct tail track on both the up and down track.

Once the turtle track has been identified, we will then look to see if there is any sand disturbance other than the track. Below are two examples: a green turtle nest (Pic 4) and a loggerhead nests (Pic 5). Green turtles take a lot of time digging their nests  (over 2 hours), dig a deep pit with a very distinct sharp edge, and move a large amount of sand in what is known as the camouflaging cover up, where the exact location of the eggs is disguised. Loggerheads (Pic 5) have a more scrappy nesting style. You can however still see a sharp edge to the body pit and a mound of sand, but it is in no way as defined as in a green turtle nest. Hawksbill nests are very similar to loggerhead nests however one other indicator is the egg size (Pic 6). On the right is a loggerhead egg that is smaller than a green egg, but as you can see bigger than the hawksbill egg on the left.
The species of turtle can also often be confirmed after hatching, when we excavate nests to determine fertility and to collect genetic samples for our Darwin Initiative research (see the previous blog post).  

With the help of our volunteers, the DoE's daytime nesting beach monitoring programme has been running since 1998 and has allowed us to monitor population trends for our nesting turtles. We're very excited that with support from the Darwin Initiative we have been able to add a night time monitoring programme to tag our nesting green turtles - stay tuned for more information when our night monitoring begins in June!

When you are walking the beach, even if you are unsure of whether or not a possible track is turtle related, we encourage you to call in the site. DoE staff and interns will be able to check the site and determine if it is a true turtle activity. If you are interested in turtle walking with us or have suspected turtle activity on your beach in the Cayman Islands or would like further information on anything turtle related, then please do get in contact. Phone 938-NEST (938-6378) or doe@gov.ky

Until next time folks! Happy turtle searching!

Luc J  





 [B1]average is more like 3-4 ft and 300 lbs? 

Monday 11 May 2015

2015 turtle season kicks off to a flying start!

Hello trusty turtle followers!

We have had a little break while our turtle season has been quiet but the time is upon us once more, with the first nests of the season recorded! These nests have broken the records for the earliest nests recorded in the Cayman Islands with the first being laid on the 8th of April! Is this record breaking streak going to continue throughout the season I wonder? With our biggest recorded turtle nesting season being in 2013 with over 300 nests across the Cayman Islands this may very well be the case! Interns and volunteers get some rest now I feel my turtle senses tingling!

So it’s time to get your walking flip flops, check, sunscreen slapped on, check, and hats at the ready, check, as we begin the first morning walks of the season this week. But did you know that we are also continuing for the second year in a row our night time tagging program? No? Well let’s see about sorting that one out!

 In 2014 the DoE was awarded a Darwin Plus grant funded by the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affaires (DEFRA) to investigate “Socioeconomic aspects of turtle conservation in the Cayman Islands”. In a nutshell the project is: a) looking at the contribution of the Turtle Farm to the islands’ wild population, b) looking at the cultural importance and prevalence of turtle meat consumption across all three islands, c) looking at illegal take and how this may be influenced by supply and demand, d) looking at management targets to reduce illegal take.

So how is in progress so far?

With the Darwin grant the DoE was able to start a comprehensive night time tagging program of nesting females. By patrolling beaches at night, DoE tagged 21 nesting females in 2014. If you remember back to when we looked at the biology of the sea turtles, females on average come back to nest every two to three years. As 2013 was a record season we expect to have a very busy season ahead of us in 2015. Very exciting times indeed!


Over the years, the turtle farm has released over 30,000 individuals into the wild. In order to determine population size and identify farm released turtles nesting in the wild, nesting individuals are tagged with 2 numbered flipper tags in their fore flippers and a microchip in the shoulder. A proportion of farm released individuals were also released with a living tag which can be used to identify which year the hatchlings were released: this is also documented as well as a small genetic sample taken. The samples currently collected are in the first stages of their genetic analysis now, and with the green nesting season predicted to start in early June it’s time for DoE interns, staff and volunteers to catch up on sleep now!


In 2014 a socioeconomic survey took place across all three islands with 991 interviews completed. These included households, high school students, restaurants and tourists. The results of the interviews will be used to see how culturally important turtle meat is, as well as the influence of price, availability and the preference for farmed or wild meat is to the Cayman Islands.

So you see we are not just doing morning walks to identify where the turtles are nesting but also a lot more behind the scenes. If you are interested in getting involved with more turtle related volunteering then please do get in contact with us. Details to follow. I would also like to add a side note that we are hoping to dedicate our Wednesdays to promote more public awareness, be this through educational talks, public excavations and in the evenings public hatchling releases. So if you know of any group or school that may be interested in either of these things then please do not hesitate to get in contact with us.

As always if you would like more information on what we do or you have a turtle related report then please get in contact with us. Send us an email on doe@gov.ky or call us on our turtle hotline 938-NEST(6378).

Bring on 2015! We are ready… are you?!


Luc J