LOCAL OCEAN TRUST: WATAMU TURTLE WATCH Encouraging ...

Your Monthly Turtle News Letter: December 2012LOCAL OCEAN TRUST: WATAMU TURTLE WATCHEncouraging YOU to love your local ocean!Nesting ProgrammeDecember has given us the best gifts, with 5 newnests being laid, one of them on the 26 thDecember! What a wonderful gift for all turtlelovers around the world! As you may all beaware Watamu nesting females are ever incompetition with tourists and beach operatorswithin the Marine Park, and two of these nestswill require extra resources to monitor. Two nests hatched this month and atotal of 217 hatchlings emerged and started their amazing journey in the Ocean.Despite the 2012 nesting season beingdelayed and starting early April, ournest protection & monitoringprogramme has cared for 51 nests thisyear, however our nesting season hasnot finished and we still have 2 nestingfemales. Out of the 51 nests laid thisyear 43 have hatched so far. That is3692 hatchlings have made it to theocean in 2012! Since this programmebegan we have recorded over 43,000 hatchlings that have made it safely tothe ocean.

Your Monthly Turtle News Letter: December 2012Fact File 1: The latest nesting season recorded by LOT: WTW was in 2003 whenit began in June. 47 nests were laid.Fact File 2: The shortest nesting season on file at LOT: WTW is 137 days whilethe longest is 351 days.By-Catch Net Release ProgrammeA huge green female, whose curved carapace length (CCL) was 123 cm wasintroduced to our By-Catch programme. She had been tagged as a nesting turtlein the Comoro Islands and had been entangled in fishing net. This was a recordfor LOT: WTW and she was a beauty!! She was tagged and released back to thesea safely.

Your Monthly Turtle News Letter: December 2012The number of releases taken place in December was 155. That is 54 hawksbilland 101 green turtles. It is great news to note that 81% of these were newlytagged, with the greens taking up 51%.The 2012 countdown for the By-Catch Net Release Programme stands at 1628!Since its inception we have successfully released more than 9000 sea turtles!We are very proud of the fishermen we work closely with for their continuedsupport!Rehabilitation CentreDo you remember Penny and Koi our patients in the rehab last month? Pennywas successfully released on the 22 nd December after making a full recovery.Koi unfortunately did not fair very well, she had a massive blockage of shell andother solid materials, and sadly died.

Your Monthly Turtle News Letter: December 2012Also released were 3 other sea turtles, 1 with a hook injury and 2 with thedisease fibropapillomatosis, after we had removed and cauterized the tumors.We also admitted a juvenile hawksbill which seemed to be rotting all over….thiswas a very sad case and she died the next day. The vet determined from thesamples analysed that she had a case of poisoning.EducationAll our schools have been closed in December. It has been a wonderful yearwith 3 new schools being integrated in the programme. The lessons included: Drawing on (marine ecosystems, mangroves, turtles and their threats,marine pollution.

Your Monthly Turtle News Letter: December 2012 Essay writing on the above Poem writing on marine life and conservation. Power point presentations on turtle biology and ecology, turtle threats,importance of turtle to the ecosystem and the need for their conservation Presentations on Mangrove ecosystems and coral reef ecosystemsWe had 42 different institutions visit our project and 2265 studentsaccompanied by 284 WCK patrons. Our education officer also had theopportunity to give a presentation in Malindi to the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya. Wealso involved 3 institutions in our Mangrove planting initiative.Community OutreachA meeting was to be held between Watamu BMU, Uyombo BMU and KilifiFisheries to agree on the terms of fishing grounds which did not materializebecause one of the parties failed to arrive. Uniting these groups is a possibleand definite way to stop the ring netters inWatamu waters. We are working with theconcerned parties to bring an amicable andlasting solution, in hopes that they will speakin one voice against trawling and other illegalactivities.We conducted 2 anti-poaching surveys inDecember. The bones and carapaces foundmade up 5 large sea turtles.

Your Monthly Turtle News Letter: December 2012From the applications we submitted to the Youth Empowerment Programme, 2applicants received communication to go for an interview. The programme isthere to provide training to youths from all over the country with different skillsto gain a career.The mangrove season has started again and species such as Ceriops Tagal are inseason. Weekly collection is conducted and the seedlings are used to restoreplaces where mangrove trees have been destroyed for individual andcommercial usage.It has been evident through the year that community support is needed in orderfor us to protect the sea turtle and the marine environment at large. We arethankful for the groups who have been on board with us. We continue into thenext year hoping to mobilize more people and initiate new projects foralternate incomes.

Your Monthly Turtle News Letter: December 2012Other sea turtle news from LAMCOT5,978 hatchlings successfully made it to the ocean from the islands Manda,Takwa, Shella and Kipungani. Since its inception the project has monitored andprotected 73,249 baby turtles.A brilliant effort from Lamu Marine Conservation Trust! For more informationplease contact LAMCOT on info@lamcot.org tel: +254 722 427 152 or visit theirwebsite www.lamcot.orgTHANK YOU!!“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can changethe world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead.LOT: WTW would like to thank all those who have given us their support in kindand in deed in 2012, our friends, family, volunteers, donors, community groups,visitors, schools, magazines and partner organizations. We are blessed to haveyou. We are thankful for your donations and your active participation onfacebook in this era of social media, and trust that you will continue in the samespirit for 2013. For those who have not visited us please do! – It’s one of theonly places you can meet two Disney Heroes!!A big and special thank you goes to our core donors TUSK Trust, DisneyWildlife Conservation Fund (DWCF), African Fund for EndangeredWildlife (AFEW). Another big thank you to other important donors: PulseAfrica, Turtle Bay Beach Club and Wild Fitness.