Pro-active nest monitoring & protection yields 98% success rate for the green turtle nest!
Do you remember the big storms and tides we experienced mid July which caused significant erosion along sections of the riparian zone in the Watamu MPA? The serious erosion prompted our team to take precautionary action and relocate nest number 20 which was at risk of being washed away. Interestingly, this action was taken 46 days after initial laying.
With great care we relocated the nest to a more suitable location and noted that indeed the original nest site was then washed away with the continued erosion of the beach. Had we not done the relocation we would have lost the nest.
Fast forward to August, this nest hatched and 3 days later we conducted the excavation. We our proud to say we had a 98% success rate for the nest, with 119 hatchlings from the 121 eggs making their way into the big blue sea!
The lesson learnt here is: Active nest monitoring and protection along with pro-active decision making helped save these 119 hatchlings and give the little ones an extra fighting chance of survival and battle against the already hard odds they have against them!
