Prior to now it has been unknown when the turtle nesting season starts and ends on Crab Island. It appears that the nesting season is starting to wind down. When we arrived a week ago we saw 140 and 170 turtles nest on the first 2 nights, so we were a little unsure. But since then we have seen 45, 55, 40, 0 and 12 turtles nest on each night repectively. The tides have been pretty bad for nesting however, with high tide during the day. The big numbers at the start of the week was probably a result of turtles nesting on the last of the good tides, and now we are seeing a rapid decline.
The Crab Island flatbacks are unique in that they do not nest in Summer, but it appears they peak throughout August and September.
Getting the sateelite transmitters on late in the season is ideal as we are most likely to see them migrate back to theri feeding grounds sooner than later.
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