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Cemetery Beach Port Hedland Flatback Tracking Project 2011-2012

A project of Pendoley Environmental.

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Species: Flatback Turtle
Life Stage: adult
Gender: Female
Release Date: 2011-11-10 21:50:00
Release Location: Cemetery Beach
Last Location: 2011-12-18 19:24:52

Background

This is the fourth consecutive year that flatback turtles are being satellite tracked from Cemetery Beach in Port Hedland, Western Australia. This tracking program has now tracked 30 flatback turtles from Cemetery Beach inn Port Hedland. It forms one component of a larger marine turtle research and monitoring progam that is being sponsored by BHP Billiton Quantum outer harbour project. The program is being carried out by marine turtle biologists from Pendoley Environmental who are also managing a flatback turtle flipper tagging program, a flatback turtle nest success program and a hatchling seafinding program on Cemetery Beach.

The satellite tracking results will provide data on the turtles nesting at Cemetery Beach and will allow researchers to identify turtles that move between rookeries (eg turtles tagged at Mundabullangana have been seen at Cemetery Beach) in addition to showing us where they go between nesting events both within a season and between seasons, what migratory corridors they use when returning to remote foraging grounds and will show us the location of the foraging grounds.