Long Term Turtle Conservation on Cousin Island

Long term turtle conservation on Cousin island

Project: Long term turtle conservation on Cousin island Country: Seychelles Organisation / Address: Nature Seychelles, The Center for Environment and Education, P.O.Box 1310, Roche Caiman, Mahe, Seychelles Telephone: +248 601100 Fax: +248 601102 E-mail address: [email protected] Alternate email address: [email protected] Web site address: www.natureseychelles.org Location(s) of main activity: Cousin island Project Summary: The largest hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) population remaining in the Western Indian Ocean is found in Seychelles, where about 1,230-1,740 females nested annually in the early 1980s. Since then, however, populations have been reduced because of hunting of nesting females during the 30 years before 1994, when turtle harvest was completely banned.

An exception to the decline is the population at Cousin Island Special Reserve. Before 1972 most of the turtles nesting on Cousin were killed. BirdLife International started a program of reduction in turtle catches in 1968 when it purchased the island, which was, designated a Nature Reserve. Full protection provided in 1974 when the marine area around it (up to 400 meters surrounding the island) was made into a Special Reserve (Shah et al,1999)

Monitoring was introduced in 1971 and continues under Nature Seychelles, the managers of the Reserve since 1998. According to Mortimer (1999), it has become what could be the world's longest running monitoring program for this species. Nesting beaches are protected, monitored and kept free of debris. Poachers are kept out of the marine reserve thus protecting gravid females as well as mating pairs.

The Reserve now hosts what is considered to be the single most important nesting site for this species in the Western Indian Ocean (Mortimer, 1994, 1999). Nesting activity, since 1971 has almost quadrupled. From lows of less than 30 nesting females a year the population has grown to highs of 140.

The experience on Cousin shows that protection of nesting beaches and of female turtles coming in to nest is an effective way of conserving turtle populations. Five turtles tagged on Cousin and tracked through a satellite transmitter were monitored between 2 and 19 months. All five returned to Cousin to nest, and none had moved further than 200 km. (Mortimer, 1999). Adults forage in habitats in the Seychelles Bank where there is little possibility of capture by humans. By contrast, adult females become vulnerable to capture on and around nesting beaches.

The model program on Cousin has shown the way forward and since the 1990’s, management of other islands as well as the Seychelles government has taken protection of nesting beaches seriously. Project Started: 1998 Project Ended: Reports / Information material: Mortimer, J. A. (1999.Conservation of Hawksbill Turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata)in the Republic of Seychelles: In. Pilcher,N. and Ismail, G.(eds.) Proceedings of the 2nd ASEAN Symposium and Workshop on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation.

Mortimer, J. A. & Bresson, R. (1994).The hawksbill turtle population at Cousin island, Republic of Seychelles: 1971-72 to 1991-92. In. Shroeder.B.A. & Witherington. B.E. (eds.) Proceedings of the 13th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservtion. NOAA Tech. Memo NMFS-SEFSC-341: 115-118

Mortimer, J. A. & Bresson, R. (1999). Temporal Distribution and periodicity in hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) nesting at Cousin island, Republic of Seychelles, 1971-1997. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 3(2): 318-325

Shah, N.J., Souyave.J., & Parr.S. (1999-2004) Cousin Island Special Reserve Management Plan. BirdLife eychelles/RSPB/BirdLife International Planned activities: Sea turtle posters and a booklet for IOSEA Year of the Turtle. Controlled visits by Seychellois children through WildLIfe Clubs of Seychelles. Active research program through a partnership with overseas universities. Computerised data base. Collaborators: BirdLife International, Jeanne Mortimer, Cousine Island (Pty) LTD., WWF, IUCN, Seacology, WIOMSA. Budget available: USD 10,000/year Current Sponsors: Nature Seychelles Past Sponsors: BirdLife International Information contributed by: Nirmal Jivan Shah Info last updated: 3 Apr 2006 Other: Additional text/image: