Penyu Comel

In situ nest conservation

Once the nest is validated by locating a clutch of eggs, relocated if necessary, and properly backfilled, it must be protected from predation by standard predator control procedures and be properly located on the beach.

Conservation of nests consists of covering the egg chamber with a 2 x 2 inch mesh plastic screen centered exactly over the egg chamber, attaching the screen by burying or staking with plastic stakes and marking the nest with a wooden stake located a specific distance and direction from the nest. In areas especially susceptible to snake or fox predation a cage constructed of wire mesh is set on top of the plastic screen to prevent raccoons from reaching through the screen to grab a quick meal. 

Relocation of Nests

This conservation technique is used to reduce threats to eggs and hatchling of marine turtles. The nests can be relocate either up the beach or into centralized hatcheries. Nests deposited in areas with low probability of success are relocated to areas with higher probability and placed in new, egg chambers dug with a post-hole digger, then covered and marked as in situ nests. Management criteria can be established to trigger moving nests to more favorable habitat if it is located in previously unsuccessful stretches of beach, is in jeopardy from ground water inundation, is placed too far out on the beach, or is situated in a highly erosive portion of beach. However, Mortimer (1999) stated that hatcheries should be used as a last option. This is due to the potential negative effects of hatcheries such as sex ratio alteration (Godfrey & Mrosovsky, 1999) or reduction of hatching success relative to natural nests (Limpus et al. 1979; Mortimer 1999). More recently, Mrosovsky (2006) suggested that nest relocation over the long term may distort gene pools. He cautioned that more research should be conducted on the impacts of nest relocation, and also suggested that alternative strategies for doomed egg management be explored. But Dutton et al. (2005) and Mazaris et al. (2005) stated that increasing hatchling output, either through nest protection or nest relocation, can have positive impacts on population size. Once relocated each nest is monitored on a daily basis.

Nest Moving Protocol: