Durban - The Indian Ocean has washed up another surprise for world turtle expert and former Natal Parks Board chief Dr George Hughes.
On a visit to the beaches of Maputaland earlier this year, Hughes (who has studied sea turtles for nearly 50 years) recorded the first official sighting of a green turtle laying eggs on a beach in South Africa.
Although these endangered turtles are seen frequently in the sea off KwaZulu-Natal, this was the first record of a green turtle nesting on the province’s beaches.
The nearest place they are known to nest is Europa Island, 700km away in the Mozambique Channel.
Announcing his find in the latest edition of “Environment” magazine, Hughes said he was thrilled to have stumbled upon the nesting turtle, having spent almost five decades studying and watching loggerhead and leatherback turtles along the Maputaland coastline.
He found the female green turtle on January 16 shortly after giving a lecture to guests from Rocktail Bay and Tonga Beach Lodge.
Accompanied by a local turtle guide named Gugu, they came across what they initially thought to be a nesting loggerhead shortly before midnight.
“The surprise was the fact that this was clearly not a loggerhead but a green turtle (Chelonia mydas) very common in the waters along the east coast of South Africa, but never having been recorded as nesting on South African beaches. Gugu and I were absolutely thrilled with our find and went about the normal procedures of measuring and tagging with an enthusiasm that bordered on the hysterical.”
While it was possible that other greens had previously nested along the KZN coast, this had never been reliably witnessed or recorded.
According to the latest International Union for Nature Conservation status report, green turtle nesting female numbers have declined between 50 percent and 70 percent over the past three generations.
These turtles, that feed on seagrasses and can live up to 20 years, are found in tropical and subtropical waters.
The Mercury