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Figure 1. Green turtles coming ashore at dusk for nesting at Raine Island, December 2006. Photograph by Duncan Limpus.

Raine Island becomes just the eighth area in Queensland to be granted National Park (Scientific) status and the first for six years. This status is only granted to areas to protect species or habitats of exceptional scientific value. In practical terms, that means only those people with permission to monitor or study this vital turtle rookery will now have access to the fragile island.

Not only does Raine Island have the largest known green turtle nesting population in the world with tens of thousands of turtles coming to lay their eggs each year, it is home to the endangered herald petrel and the vulnerable red-tailed tropic bird and is arguably the most significant seabird rookery on the Great Barrier Reef.

The Queensland Government has signed an historic new Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditional owners - the Wuthathi people from Shelbourne Bay who identify as native title holders and the traditional owners of the area, and the Erubam Le of Darnley Island, the Ugarem Le of Stephen Island and Meriam Le of Murray Island, who identify as the Torres Strait native title holders of the area.

Environment Minister Lindy Nelson-Carr said the Environmental Protection Agency negotiated the ILUA with the stakeholders in a process convened through the National Native Title Tribunal. The agreement recognises the Traditional Owners’ connection to the place and respects the need to jointly manage and conserve Raine Island and its surrounds. The Traditional Owners will work with the Queensland Government to manage and conserve the island’s values and they have agreed not to take any flora or fauna from the national park, while allowing for a limited take of fish and invertebrates from the surrounding three nautical mile zone. The EPA will be able to continue its successful monitoring and conservation of the tens of thousands of green turtles that come ashore on the island each year to nest.

Green turtles migrate to breed at Raine Island from coral reef and seagrass pastures within a 2,500 km radius of the island (Figure 2). This dispersed foraging population is the focus of probably the largest take of green turtles from the wild by coastal communities throughout eastern Indonesia, southern Papua New Guinea, northern Australia, including Torres Strait, and to a lesser extent in Vanuatu and New Caledonia. In addition to being hunted for food, the green turtle is significant because it is iconic, including totemic significance, within the traditional custom of many of the coastal peoples of this region. The biology of this nesting population has been summarised by Limpus et al. (2003).

Figure 2. Foraging area distribution of green turtles that breed at Raine Island and adjacent islands, based on tag recoveries (dots).

LIMPUS, C.J., MILLER, J.D., PARMENTER, C.J., AND LIMPUS, D.J. 2003. The green turtle, Chelonia mydas , population of Raine Island and the northern Great Barrier Reef: 1843-2001. Memoirs Queensland Museum 49, 349-440 (Available upon request from author).