Turtle Volunteers Recognised

Braving early mornings and late nights Care for Hedland’s Turtle Monitoring volunteers have been recognised in an end of season event to mark yet another successful program of tracking and monitoring one of the regions most iconic animals.

The group’s turtle monitoring program, which aims to collect data of Flatback turtles from Hedland’s two turtle rookery beaches attracted a total of 139 volunteers this year.

Collectively, the organisation clocked 1194 hours of volunteer time across a range of events as part of the program.

Care for Hedland’s popular evening tours, run by Rebecca Gordon, attracted a total of 146 participants with up to 900 members of the public joining the organisation on the beaches during nesting,

Despite nest results down this year from 369 in the 2019-2020 period to 249 CFHEA chairperson Kelly Howlett said work of volunteers was outstanding.

“Whilst it was a lower turtle activity season, this past season, attributed to La Nina conditions, it was pleasing that so many local volunteers rolled up their sleeves and helped us immensely to collect the important data required.

“With COVID-19, our volunteers were entirely WA sourced, with over 100 volunteers being Hedland locals.

“On behalf of Care For Hedland we thank all our volunteers and supporters for their tremendous efforts this past monitoring season and look forward to everyone’s involvement again in November 2021 when it all kick starts again”.