Flatback Sea Turtle

From October 2011 to March 2012 all funds collected from the Don't Bag the Environment program will be donated to help protect the endangered Flatback Sea Turtle Natator depressus, Australia's only endemic marine turtle.

Found in the Tropical Waters of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland, the Flatback Sea Turtle feeds on squid, cuttlefish, sea cucumbers, jelly fish and other soft-bodied sea creatures. The shell is dark green to black in colour and is flatter than the shells of other marine turtles, giving the Flatback Sea Turtles their name. Adults and juveniles inhabit the inshore bays and reefs, seldom venturing beyond the continental shelf.

Females mature after some decades at sea and return to the region of their birth and crawl up the beach to breed. Southern populations breed in the summer months while those in northern Australia breed either all year or are confined to the cooler months of the year. Individual females lay up to five clutches of about 50 eggs in a season and may breed every one to three years. The eggs, buried in the sand for about 7 weeks, are warmed by the sun and hatch in the cool of the night. Night birds, crabs, feral foxes, cats and dogs feed on the hatchlings before they get to the sea where fish continue the predation. As few as one in two thousand survive to be adult.

In addition to natural threats to their survival, Flatback Sea Turtles are threatened by coastal development removing the stability of the beaches, the security of their food resources and the safe sanctuary in which they lay their eggs. For decades the tropical trawl fisheries caught, injured and killed sea turtles before Turtle Excluder Devices were adopted in 2001. The threats to Flatback Sea Turtles are increasing by sprawling sea-side development along the tropical coasts, building ports and wharfs, altering the sea floor by dredging channels and dumping the spoil, confusing hatchlings by lights near beaches, increasing vibrations from underwater noise, blasting, pile driving, boat traffic and recreational vehicles on beaches and disposing of plastic waste in and near the sea.

The Flatback Sea Turtle is found only in Australia, as Aussie as the koala, yet little is known of its life history and its requirements for survival. Our lack of understanding about marine turtles is the greatest threat to their survival. Funds from the Don't Bag the Environment program will be used to create and distribute fact sheets to educate and raise awareness about this magnificent marine creature among school children, remote communities and the general public.

You can donate to this project through the Paddy Pallin Foundation