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Marine Turtle Newsletter 109:8, © 2005

Marine Turtle Newsletter-Online

New Leatherback Conservation Project in Papua, Indonesia

Hiroyuki Suganuma1, Akil Yusuf2, Yacob Bakarbessy3 & Masashi Kiyota4
1Everlasting Nature of Asia; Yokohama, Kanagawa, 221-0822 Japan (E-mail: suganuma@elna.or.jp).
2 Indonesia Sea Turtle Research Center; Jakarta Utara 14260, Indonesia.
3 Sorong Regional Office of Nature Conservation, Department of Forest; Sorong Papua, Indonesia.
4 National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries, Shizuoka, Japan.

In January 2005, we initiated a conservation and management project for the leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) nesting at Wermon beach, Papua in Indonesia, in a project conducted jointly by Everlasting Nature of Asia, Indonesia Sea Turtle Research Center, and Sorong Regional Office of Nature Conservation of the Department of Forest. Little was previously known of the status of the leartherback turtle at this site. Hawksbills, greens and olive ridleys have also been recorded nesting here, but data for these species are not presented in this note (Suganuma 2000).

Wermon beach is located 30 km from Jamursba-Medi (of the Cendrawasih peninsula of Papua province), which is the most important breeding site for the leatherback turtle in the Western Pacific.

Leatherback turtles nest at Wermon beach through the year with peak nesting from December to March. We conducted a preliminary survey in August 2004 and determined that 41.8% of leatherback nests had been collected by local people and 7.4% predated by feral dogs.

Wermon beach is controlled by Wau village located 5km southeast of the beach. Members of the Abun tribe who are hunting people and earnest Christians inhabit the village. Some villagers had no other source of income and collected eggs for food, while others collected eggs for small sums of money to contribute to the church.

In December 2004, we approached the people of Wau and discussed a partnership that would include a collaborative monitoring and research programme and a halt to egg collection. Beginning in January 2005 we employed four villagers to monitor 4.3 km of the 5.8 km Wermon beach. Along this beach, 331 nests were recorded in January 2005, and 129 nests during the first 25 days of February. During that period, we determined that 13.1% of the egg clutches were predated by wild dogs and 4.4% by lizards; but we found no evidence of human predation. The people had voluntarily halted all egg collection.

This project has highlighted the importance of this site for leatherback turtles and our efforts have been shown to increase nest success. We aim to continue employing local villagers to assist with this work.

SUGANUMA, H. 2000. The research report of hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) population in Indonesia waters. Marine Environmental Association of Tokyo, Japan Bekko Association. 20-25.(In Japanese).



Figure 1. Wernon Beach, Papula, Indonesia.