Unusual sea turtle activity has been recorded on the islands off Mackay during a local
monitoring expedition.
On a Reef Catchments funded monitoring trip, contractors, assisted by volunteers from
Mackay and District Turtle Watch and Birdlife Mackay, travelled to Cockermouth Island
National Park and discovered something unexpected – a nesting loggerhead turtle.
Loggerhead turtles are listed as endangered and are not often seen nesting this far north, although they are sometimes spotted in the water. There has only been one other reported sighting of a nesting loggerhead turtle in the region. This meant that three different species – green, flatback and loggerhead turtles – were all nesting on the same island. There are no records in our region of this happening previously, making it a very unusual sighting.
Turtle monitoring on the islands off Mackay is supported by Reef Catchments through
funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.
