Southern Australian Sea Turtles

The Southern Australian Sea Turtle project was initiated to bring together publicly and privately held information on sea turtles for the southern Australian region. The information has  been made available  to research and conservation policy for these highly threatened marine species.

The project, which began in April 2014 has now finished. It has enabled the gathering of publicly available sighting (including stranding) records not currently retained in any one place. Five out of the six species of sea turtle have been recorded in these southern waters (i.e. South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania), indicating that the region may be more important than previously thought for migration and foraging.

• Since April 2014, the project gathered over 209 sea turtle sightings from all over the southern Australian region, including waters off South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. Full project area map
• All species of sea turtle have been recorded for these southern waters except the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle.
• Leatherback turtles have the highest occurrence, and appear to be sighted more often in summer-autumn than the rest of the year.

The project was developed by Deakin University’s Professor Graeme Hays and Dr Margie Morrice. They collaborated with southern Australian marine fauna researchers and database managers.

Worldwide significance

Sea turtles are endangered in many places around the world and face a number of threats. They are hunted legally and illegally for human consumption or fall victim to fishery by-catch or boat collision as they move through the sea. They are well known to be some of the most accomplished long-distance migrators on the planet, often travelling long distances between their breeding and feeding areas. Southern Australia (e.g. the coasts of South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania) lies far from the nearest breeding sites for sea turtles and yet turtles may be frequent visitors, coming to the area to feed.

Sea Turtles in Victoria

Southern Australian Sea Turtle project sightings results. Full project area map

All known Victorian Sea Turtle records from the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Accessed 24/3/15

Green Turtle

Hawsbill Turtle

Leatherback Turtle

Loggerhead Turtle

Pacific (Olive) Ridley Turtle

Why the project was set up

The aim was to learn more about what drives the occurrence of sea turtles off the coast of southern Australia. Some species may be regular visitors to this area (e.g. leatherback turtles), arriving from their more tropical breeding areas in order to feed. Yet our knowledge of this elusive species remains limited largely to anecdotal sightings and stranding events along the coast. So there is a huge knowledge gap that needs to be filled for some of Australia’s most charismatic marine mega-faunal species. Reports from the community are still most welcome.

Leatherback Turtle

Recent research papers (Open Access)

• Hays GC, Taxonera A, Renom B, Fairweather K, Lopes A, Cozens J, Laloë J-O (2022). Changes in mean body size in an expanding population of a threatened species. Proc. R. Soc. B 289: 20220696. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0696
• Hays GC, Mazaris AD, Schofield G (2022). Inter‑annual variability in breeding census data across species and regions. Marine Biology 169:54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04042-x

Contacts re Turtle sightings:

Graeme Hayes or Jared Tromp, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University.