Want to help save endangered turtles, seems there’s an App for that

An Australian mobile phone App has been launched to help save endangered loggerhead sea turtles at threat from coastal development.

The Turtle Tracker App will allow anyone to track the ocean journeys of endangered loggerhead sea turtles and provide critical information to scientists to support conservation efforts for this vulnerable marine animal, which has a survival rate of one in 1500.

Developed by Sydney advertising agency Brains for the Gnaraloo Wilderness Foundation, the App uses satellite technology to track and monitor female loggerhead sea turtles that nest on a remote stretch of beach just north of Carnarvon in Western Australia.

The App will show their journeys throughout the Indian Ocean, giving scientists their first confirmed data on where they go between nesting.

Identified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the turtles that nest at Gnaraloo are under threat by impending development.

There are currently a number of proposals under consideration by the WA State Government to develop Gnaraloo Bay, a loggerhead turtle nesting area, into a ‘tourist node’.

Paul Richardson, chair and founder of the Gnaraloo Wilderness Foundation said, “At other beaches around the world tourist facilities have had disastrous effects on sea turtle numbers.

“Turtles navigate by following the lowest light on their horizon, so light from hotels and cars can cause both the mature females and hatchlings to head inland instead of back out to sea, where they rapidly dehydrate and die.”

Karen Hattingh, Project Manager of the Gnaraloo Turtle Conservation Program, said, “Every single adult loggerhead and hatchling at Gnaraloo matters to the survival of this species locally and internationally.”

“Their odds of survival are slim enough as it is.

“They only nest every three to four years and only one in 1500 loggerhead turtles survive to sexual maturity, which takes around 30 years.”

“The Gnaraloo turtles contribute vital numbers to the global loggerhead population, and so their nesting rookeries on the beaches of Gnaraloo Bay and Gnaraloo Cape Farquhar are extremely important to global conservation efforts,” Ms Harringh added.

Loggerhead turtles return to nest at Gnaraloo every year from November to February, but up until now scientists have not been able to confirm where they journey after nesting.

“Our new satellite tracking program will help to reveal this mystery to inform conservation efforts at Gnaraloo and elsewhere.

“Over time the app will build up a picture of where the 10 female loggerhead turtles go between nesting, how often they return to lay their eggs on the wild beaches of Gnaraloo and where they go once the nesting season is over,” added Mr Richardson.

To help raise funds for this vital project, the public was asked to suggest names for the 10 loggerhead turtles being tracked in return for donations.

The names which were voted for on social media are: Gnarly, Marloo, Normalex, Gwoonwardu, Oceaneve, Constance Winifred, Caretta, Pulsy, Eugenie and Tildy.

The Gnaraloo Turtle Conservation Program is jointly funded by the Gnaraloo Wilderness Foundation and Caring for Country.

The Turtle Tracker app is free download for Windows, Android and Apple. Users can simply click on one of 10 loggerhead turtles to discover where it is.

Apple AppStore https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=1056339954&mt=8