How a childhood spent watching turtles at Mon Repos sparked a lifetime of conservation

I grew up thinking that turtles came up on all the beaches when I was about 18 I visited other beaches and something realized they didn't have turtle tracks I think a lot of people don't realize just how special this place is my father brought me down here is about a five year old child it was tradition to come down to mantra pay to see the new year in there's only one year's eve since 1956 that I haven't been on the beach with the Turtles here in 1968 I started a four-year study on flat back Turtles all I can say is it got out of hand and it's still going when I started the research I wasn't in the government conservation agency I was a high school teacher and then later a lecturer I just brought a whole group of my students along to educate them it grew from there as seeing the value of members of the broader community having a an understanding having a capacity to assist in conservation research monitoring we're talking generations now of volunteering in a program like this the impact that Queensland turtle conservation program has had is it's changed the whole face of conservation of turtles for Queensland the vast majority of turtle nesting on the east coast of Queensland is in national parks and that's a direct result of the survey work that we did back in the 1970s and working with parks management to have the areas declare National Park to give strong habitat protection when we look globally for sea turtles there are a number of hotspots that stand out and Queensland is one of those places the beaches here are critical for the survival of the species through the whole South Pacific I grew up with Turtles and I'd like my grandkids and my great-grandkids to be able to enjoy the things that I did if that's a legacy that I can contribute to then I can enjoy that you

Channel: Queensland, Australia

Views: 11,197

Rating: 4.8709679 out of 5

Keywords: queensland, holidays, australia, travel, turtles, mon repos, bundaberg, turtles in queensland, where to see, what to do, things to do, ways to do, turtles in australia, mon repos bundaberg, mon repos queensland

Id: RvRgtOERhDo

Length: 2min 13sec (133 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 01 2017