Nature Seychelles calls for volunteers for hawksbill turtle monitoring on Cousin Island

Nature Seychelles is recruiting volunteers for the hawksbill turtle nesting season, which will start October 2024 and end in April 2025 on the Cousin Island Special Reserve.

The chief executive of Nature Seychelles, Dr Nirmal Jivan Shah, described Cousin Island as one of the most important nesting sites for hawksbill turtles in the western Indian Ocean.

“We need a number of dedicated individuals who are collecting data and monitoring this critically endangered species at all times during the breeding season. We just don’t have enough staff to do this, especially on the weekends and public holidays. The volunteer programme aims to help bring in enough hands to assist in this vital project to ensure each season is just as successful and productive as the last,” he emphasised.

The hawksbill sea turtle is classified on the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a critically endangered species. The species is largely limited to tropical and subtropical marine and estuary ecosystems.

The programme is the longest-running hawksbill monitoring programme in the world and Shah said it is highly effective and has been able to intercept about 87-90 percent of all successfully nesting females.

“From this, we can get their tag IDs and feed this into the turtle database to estimate the number of nesting females. Nests are marked and excavated to assess hatching success. Nests are translocated when at risk with hatching successes of this activity as high as 96 percent. These three factors alone can act as great indicators for the species as a whole as if there is a sudden drop in nesting females, dropping fertility or, more and more nests at risk due to erosion, we will know about it,” he added.

He explained the importance that volunteers play in the successful running of the programme and that they “are worth their weight in gold when it gets busy to help share the workload as turtles come up the beach in numbers. They are critically endangered having had populations decimated in the past by human activity so the more we know now, the better our decisions for future protection can be. For people thinking of volunteering, it helps increase the visibility of the programme.”

Volunteers will be expected to assist in all aspects of turtle monitoring starting with the basic first steps of walking a turtle patrol on the beaches. As they gain experience, they will learn to observe nesting behaviour, how to take measurements, count clutches and, translocate a nest, and eventually, they might be ready and prepared to tag a turtle.

Shah said this volunteer programme is an opportunity for people who are passionate about conservation to develop their skills in a unique environment.

“We are after highly motivated, self-reliant individuals. As incredible and breathtaking Cousin Island is and as fascinating as the hawksbill themselves are, it is still hard work in a tropical environment so we need people to be physically fit and motivated to keep pushing to maximise each season. Flexibility is important given the turtles emerge at any time in the day, including when you have just sat down for lunch,” he said.

Shah said for those looking at conservation as a career, the volunteer programme is an excellent and unique opportunity to acquire practical skills in turtle monitoring and management. Cousin Island is remote as well, so offers an opportunity for volunteers to develop their skills in self-reliance and life skills.