ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2009) — The remarkable journey of a green turtle from Indonesia into Australian waters is helping conservationists to track the migratory route of this species to the Kimberley-Pilbara coast – one of the few relatively pristine coastal areas left on Earth.
Ana, a female green turtle, was tagged in Indonesia in November as part of a turtle tracking project by WWF and Udayana University in Bali, Indonesia, and has slowly made her way from a nesting beach in East Java, across the Indian Ocean, and is on track for the beaches of the Kimberley in Western Australia.
Her journey, monitored online by WWF, demonstrates the strong biological ties between Indonesia and the reefs on the west Australian coast.
“Ana’s journey is unique. She has revealed an ‘oceanic superhighway’ that helps us better understand how marine turtles navigate around the world’s oceans as well as highlighting the strong ecological and evolutionary connections between Indonesia and Australia’s Kimberley-Pilbara coast,” said Gilly Llewellyn, WWF Ocean’s Program Leader.
“This new finding throws the spotlight on the true natural values of the magnificent Kimberley marine ecosystem and its link to the Coral Triangle to the north – the world’s epicentre of marine biodiversity and the cross-roads of migration routes and breeding grounds for whales, turtles, dolphins and other precious marine species.”
The Coral Triangle spans Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste, and contains critical habitat for six of the world’s seven species of marine turtles, including green, hawksbill, olive ridley, leatherback, loggerhead and flatback turtles. Keep Reading
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