Once we recuperated from the trip we headed out to see what was happening on the beach. First we counted 319 tracks left over the past few nights. This told us that the sea turtles were still coming out to lay eggs in large numbers. Due to the tides the sea turtles were back to nesting early in the south and late in the north. Brett and I were able to show Scott the whole process in the daylight...females laying eggs, hatchlings emerging, and hatchlings being attacked by predators. We then had Scott checking for tags on nesting turtles; when he found a tag return it was an amazing feeling. That means this turtle, with tag K96432 had come up most likely for a third lay in her nesting season after we had tagged her originally nesting in September. It was nice to share our love for the turtles with Scott, who seemed very interested and excited about the whole experience.
Later once we fuelled up on delicious Vietnamese spring rolls, we headed out to check some tags. We saw many sea turtles. Also, our initial impression was that there were fewer crocs. There were still quite a few about, but not so many. I look forward to going out tonight to see how many female turtles and crocodiles are about. We are still left to wonder when the Flatback’s peak nesting season will start to decline.
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