TURTLE VISITOR NUMBERS UP AT MON REPOS

Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability
The Honourable Kate Jones
11/02/2010
TURTLE VISITOR NUMBERS UP AT MON REPOS

It's not just the number of nesting turtles that's gone up at Mon Repos this season - the number of people visiting the marine turtle rookery near Bundaberg has also been skyrocketing.

Climate Change and Sustainability Minister Kate Jones said the number of visitors hit 20,000 last night (Tuesday 9 February) with more on the way.

"This is one of the world's great wildlife spectacles, and the weather is not putting off the visitors or the turtles," Ms Jones said.

"This time last year Mon Repos had just over 19,000 visitors go on tours, and the previous year there were just on 18,000.

"Last night, 126 visitors took tours. By the time the turtle season finishes on 28 March 2010 we may see numbers like the last big year, 2004-05, when more than 28,000 visitors did tours."

Ms Jones said turtle numbers were also well up on previous years, in spite of the nests lost through a combination of king tides and strong winds in recent weeks.

"Up to today, 400 loggerhead turtles and six flatback turtles have nested, and as each turtle nests multiple times, Mon Repos has about 1,600 nests this season," she said.

"About 100 nests were eroded but staff and volunteers have been doing an excellent job moving nests to safety throughout the season.

"We made sure people were on the ground when the wild weather hit to salvage as many eggs as possible.

"Thanks to their sterling efforts, many nests have survived, although they were only able to move a small number of clutches during the tides.

"We believe less than 10 per cent of clutches were lost, which is within the bounds of sustainability - if the nests had not been relocated, losses would have been 40 per cent or more."

Ms Jones said the rain itself was not affecting the hatchling and nesting turtles.

"Since the end of the school holidays, Mon Repos has been averaging 100 to 180 people per evening, except for Friday and Saturday nights which are usually the busiest with 200 to 300 people," she said.

"Everyone has been braving the weather, as the rain has not affected the hatchling and nesting turtles.

"Visitors are mostly seeing hatchlings at this time in the season. Some nesting turtles are still coming ashore for laying, just not every night.

"People coming down for a tour in rainy weather need to bring a raincoat, as umbrellas are not allowed on the tours."

Volunteers and staff take the visitors through a turtle talk, then down to the beach where at this time in the season they hope to see hatchling turtles emerge and run down to the ocean.

Tours can be booked through Bundaberg Regional Tourism ph 07 4153 8888 or online at www.bookbundabergregion.com.au

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Publish Date: 11 Feb 10