November in iSimangaliso Wetland Park heralds the beginning of one of the most special and awe-inspiring miracles of this world heritage site – the nesting of endangered turtles on the 220km golden shoreline. Annually, between the months of November and March, leatherback and loggerhead turtles haul their massive bodies out of the Indian Ocean and up to the base of the dunes, to lay their eggs. In this most ancient cycle of life, turtles return with almost magical accuracy to the very same beach where they hatched.
Of the seven species of marine turtles worldwide, iSimangaliso’s protected coastline has five species, and its pristine beaches comprise one of the last significant laying sites in Africa for loggerheads and leatherbacks. Turtle monitoring has been undertaken in the Park since the 1960’s, with turtles being measured and tagged. The turtles of iSimangaliso have received significant conservation attention, producing a noteworthy increase in the loggerhead turtle population.
“With less than 100 laying females coming ashore each year, iSimangaliso’s leatherback turtles, the most southern population in the world, are rarer than black rhino and critically endangered. This means they could go extinct in our lifetime. Having survived eons and ice ages along with rhinos, and at a time when over 1000 biological species are going extinct globally every year, their future survival lies with all of us,” said iSimangaliso CEO Andrew Zaloumis.
The challenge for the iSimangaliso Authority, as site managers, is that once turtles leave the Park’s shores and swim across the high seas, they undertake epic journeys, travelling as far as Australia and India. During these journeys, which occur between nesting periods, the leatherbacks spend their time foraging. They feed on pelagic (open ocean) invertebrates such as jellyfish and this makes them extremely vulnerable to threats such as long line fishing methods and pollution. Plastic bags are often mistaken for jellyfish by these feeding animals, ultimately killing the animals that ingest them.
There is also strong collaboration with Mozambique’s Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve (PPMR) – proclaimed in 2009 – bordering iSimangaliso’s northern border. Africa’s longest trans-frontier marine protected area now offers greater protection and hope for the preservation of these species, with much improved compliance and monitoring efforts across the border.
According to PPMR’s Park Manager, Miguel Goncalves: “Since 1994 a total of 5811 tracks from loggerheads and 410 from leatherbacks were recorded. An increase in the number of tracks recorded for both species in the last seven years is likely the result of a better coverage of the monitoring season, according to researchers. Since 2007, loggerheads have laid an average of 220 nests, while for leatherbacks 32 nests were recorded on average per season. The number of loggerhead turtles tagged per season has been steadily increasing, with a record 197 turtles tagged in 2013/14, with an average of 63.9 turtles tagged per season.”
As conservation efforts and scientific knowledge are freely shared between the two countries, the future looks more promising for at least two of the planet’s endangered species.