Monash University scientists are working with Aotearoa/New Zealand and US experts in a bid to help save the critically endangered Western Pacific leatherback turtle.

Credit: Nathan Pettigrew.

Monash University

Monash University scientists are working with Aotearoa/New Zealand and US experts in a bid to help save the critically endangered Western Pacific leatherback turtle.

As the world’s most migratory turtle, the leatherback faces threats across its various habitats, including unintentional capture by fisheries, the harvesting of adult turtles and eggs, plastic pollution, nesting beach habitat loss, climate change, and vessel strike.

The research project will assist conservation efforts by gathering new data on sightings and distribution of Western Pacific leatherback turtles in waters off the North Island of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

The leatherback is the world’s largest turtle, with adults measuring 1.5 to 2.5 metres in length, and some weighing more than 500 kilograms.

The turtles travel to east Australian and Aotearoa/New Zealand waters from nesting grounds in the western Pacific, foraging for jellyfish in waters off the coasts of NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Monash University marine biologist Professor Richard Reina, Head of the Ecophysiology and Conservation Research Group in the Monash School of Biological Sciences, said international cooperation between countries is vital to understanding where the turtles go and what potential threats they are exposed to.

“Animals in the ocean move freely across international boundaries, especially animals like leatherback turtles that migrate long distances,” Professor Reina said.

“In this case, the collaboration with New Zealand is aimed at protecting these turtles that forage around Australia’s east coast and across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand’s productive waters.

“The aerial surveys allow us to find the turtles at sea and work out what areas they prefer to forage in, along with what human activities are happening in the area.”

Leatherback turtles in the Pacific Ocean have declined by more than 80 per cent in recent decades and are currently facing the threat of extinction from the entire ocean basin.

Monash Adjunct Research Associate Dr Sean Williamson was key to planning and executing the research project and has just returned from conducting aerial surveys in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

“Leatherback turtles have been on the planet for over 100 million years and survived the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, so it would be a tragedy to lose them now,” Dr Williamson said.

“To our knowledge, this is the first aerial survey of leatherback foraging habitat conducted in the Southern Hemisphere.

“It has been excellent to learn the specific techniques from our North American colleagues who have been conducting these kinds of surveys for decades off the coast of California.

“As well as leatherbacks, we have seen an amazing array of marine megafauna in the Bay of Plenty, including whale sharks, huge ocean sunfish, giant manta rays, blue whales, and lots of other whale and dolphin species.”

The research is funded through the Aotearoa/New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) Marine Conservation Services Programme, and the project is led by US-based non-profit conservation group Upwell Turtles.

Monash is providing support and expertise alongside US-based Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and Aotearoa/New Zealand-based National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

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