First turtle nesting patrols started for 2020.
On May 1st, Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire (STCB) staff and volunteer beach keepers conducted their first sea turtle nesting patrols of the 2020 nesting season on Klein Bonaire, Te Amo Beach, and Donkey Beach (a/k/a Windsock) and in the south of Bonaire. Patrols on Playa Chikitu, a green turtle nesting site, will begin in June.
The first nesting patrol on Klein Bonaire turned out to be a great start to the new season: STCB staff and volunteers recorded the first nest on Friday, May 1st, laid by a loggerhead approximately two nights before.
“When a nest has just been laid, the eggs are almost translucent. They soon start to calcify and after several days the eggs turn white. So, based on the degree of calcification of the eggs, we believe this first nest was laid just after King’s Day.” – Gielmon ‘Funchi’ Egbreghts
“Funchi” is STCB’s Field Specialist). The organization expects the first nesting activities on Te Amo, Donkey Beach, and on the southern pocket beaches will follow soon.
So far, 32 nests–out of the approximately 100 nests that will be laid in the coming months–have been adopted as part of STCB’s Adopt-A-Nest program. STCB is very grateful for the continuous support of its funders & donors, especially in a time like this.
“Thanks to the generosity of our nest adopters, we can continue to patrol Bonaire’s nesting beaches, train new staff and volunteers, collect data on Bonaire’s nesting population and research ways in which we can increase the hatching success of (critically) endangered sea turtle species around our island.” – Kaj Schut, STCB Manager
(Source: STCB)
