Turtles hatchlings dying in extreme heat at Mon Repos (ABC News)
Piles of dead turtle hatchlings are lining Queensland's famous Mon Repos beach amid a heatwave which has pushed the sand's temperature to a record 75 degrees Celsius.
"They can't sweat, they can't pant, so they've got no mechanism for cooling," Department of Environment and Heritage Protection chief scientist Dr Col Limpus said.
"If they encounter very hot sand they just simply heat up.
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| The exact number of deaths is not known at this stage, but it could be in the hundreds. (ABC Wide Bay: Jess Lodge) |
"You really only have probably an hour or so in those really hot sands and it's terminal."
The extreme heat is also conducted down to the turtle's nest, pushing the temperature to about 34C, which is approaching the lethal level for incubation.
That is the hottest temperature recorded in a nest in more than a decade.
Record temperatures on Mon Repos beach are killing this season's turtle hatchlings. (ABC News)
"We've got an increased mortality … that we haven't been seeing in years," Dr Limpus said.
The average hatchling survival rate is 85 per cent but due to the heat it is likely to be a lot lower this year.
The exact number of turtle deaths is not known at this stage, but hundreds have been seen dead on the beach.
The 1.6-kilometre Mon Repos beach is the most important breeding site for Loggerhead turtles in the South Pacific.
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| The average 85 percent survival rate for hatchlings at Mon Repos is expected to be lower this year. (ABC Wide Bay: Jess Lodge) |
Rangers, scientists, volunteers working overtime
The rangers, scientists and volunteers at Mon Repos have been working around the clock to save as many clutches of hatchlings as they can from the heat.
Deceased turtles in the dunes lead them to the nests where some hatchlings may still be alive beneath the surface and they work quickly to dig them up, separating the dead from the living.
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| Dr Col Limpus has recorded sand temperatures up to 75 degrees Celsius, a record for Mon Repos. (ABC Wide Bay: Jess Lodge) |
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| Ranger Cathy Gatley has been protecting turtles at Mon Repos for 21 years. (Supplied: Cathy Gatley) |
They are also relocating any new nests to hatchery areas underneath shade cloths, with sand surface temperatures under the shades up to 30 degrees cooler.
Cathy Gatley is the ranger in charge at the Mon Repos Conservation Park and has been working to protect the turtles on Bundaberg's coast for the past 21 years.
Ms Gatley said the heat was keeping the park rangers, volunteers and research crews very busy this year.
"Any turtle that comes ashore and nests, we're relocating those eggs back into a shade shelter," she said.
"Whereas in the past we would only relocate the eggs if they were down low in danger of being flooded and that's when we'd move them up to a higher spot."
Dr Limpus said how the turtles respond to the relocation was yet to be seen.
He said a long-term option might be to introduce more trees to create shade in the dunes for the turtle nests, but for now the shaded shelters were doing the job.
"This is something we didn't plan for, we've been confronted with a new situation," he said.
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| Volunteers work to sort the dead from the living and help as many hatchlings as they can to the ocean. (ABC Wide Bay: Jess Lodge) |
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