Shooting Turtles, with our Cameras

The inaugural Great Barrier Reef Megafauna Expedition departs in just two days, on Monday 2^nd September for 5 nights at sea – weather permitting.    And the weather does look like it might be a bit blowy.

Breaking news:

There are now six categories including ‘largest reptile’.   This could be a turtle, a snake –hopefully not a crocodile.

Prize money is $500 for the winner of each category with the potential for $3,000 to be won across all six categories.

This new category of ‘largest reptile’ is at the request of Paul Crocombe from Adrenalin Snorkel and Dive who are co-hosting the event, and along with the now standalone category ‘largest whales’ is sponsored by Perth-based philanthropist Bryant Macfie.

Charter of the MV Sea Esta has been made possible by Sydney-based philanthropist Simon Fenwick.

Did you know, six of the world’s seven marine turtle species occur in Australian waters:

1. Green Turtle, Chelonia mydas,

2. Loggerhead Turtle, Caretta caretta,

3. Flatback Turtle, Natator depressus,

4. Hawksbill Turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata,

5. Olive Ridley, Lepidochelys olivacea, and

6. Leatherback Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea.

The Leatherback Turtle is the largest species; adults usually grow 1.8 to 2.2 metres and weigh between 250 and 700 kilograms.   This information is from the Queensland Museum Website.

I know from the stories my mother told me, she worked on Heron Island during the 1950s, that turtle meat was once very popular in Queensland –  for eating.

According to an article by Suzy Freeman-Greene published in the Griffith Review some years ago:

In Queensland, by 1886 a substantial turtle meat and soup industry had been established in the Moreton Bay area …  Most turtles were caught there with nets. One traveller to the Fitzroy River estuary reported that it was customary ‘for drinking salons in the coastal towns to have turtle soup “on tap”’.

In the Capricorn group of islands, which includes Heron, harvesting of nesting turtles began in 1904. Hunters would patrol beaches in the evening, flip turtles on their backs and leave them overnight. They would return at high tide to decapitate them with an axe, taking the meat away by boat. Occasionally, turtles were hoisted live onto boats in slings.

During 1924–25, 1,220 turtles were harvested at North West Island, producing 36,000 tins of soup. Once the Heron Island cannery opened, the combined harvest of the two factories was 2,500 green turtles in 1925–26. End quote.

Last time I was at Heron Island, in November 2020, there were so many turtles, and the females were laying eggs on the beach through the night and still at 10am in the morning.

Population numbers seem to have recovered – at least of Green turtles.

Times have changed.  When it comes to turtles at least, we are kinder.

So please don’t tell me that the Great Barrier Reef was pristine, back 100 years ago – as Valerie Taylor and others are inclined to suggest in their memories.

*****

And we now have a megafauna expedition logo; more about the logo and that clam with a measure, soon.