Gnaraloo Turtle Conservation Program (GTCP)

The Gnaraloo Turtle Conservation Program (GTCP) is a scientific research and community engagement program aimed at identifying, monitoring and protecting marine turtle rookeries located along a 65 km stretch of coast at the southern end of the Ningaloo Reef at Gnaraloo, WA. The Gnaraloo Station Trust, a private entity, and the Gnaraloo Wilderness Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, now jointly administer the GTCP which commenced on-ground in 2008 at Gnaraloo Station, a pastoral station and wilderness tourism business located adjacent to the Ningaloo Marine Park, Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area and Ningaloo Coast National Heritage Listed Area. The GTCP currently focuses on two turtle rookeries – the Gnaraloo Bay Rookery (GBR) and Gnaraloo Cape Farquhar Rookery (GCFR) – where loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) are the primary nesting species, with green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and possibly hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) nesting infrequently. Since 2008, GTCP research teams have conducted early-morning beach track surveys and nest monitoring activities, using protocols adapted from the neighbouring Ningaloo Turtle Program (NTP) in Exmouth, as well as other targeted research activities (e.g. verification of Day Survey track interpretations via direct observation during Night Surveys). The Trust also administers the Gnaraloo Feral Animal Control Program (GFACP) which has simultaneously conducted the control of invasive predators such as the European red fox, feral cats and wild dogs in order to reduce the impact of feral animal predation on turtle Nests and hatchlings.
A peer review paper with GTCP turtle nesting data from 2008/09 – 2015/16 was prepared and accepted to a scientific journal during the season 2015/16. A satellite tagging project was also initiated and completed of loggerhead turtles in both the GBR and GCFR Survey Areas for the first time in 2015/16 (Hattingh et al. 2017)
In addition to monitoring and research, the GTCP conducts a growing range of educational and community engagement activities including onsite participant programs at Gnaraloo, school presentations, Skype lessons with international school groups and media appearances. The GTCP has also partnered with external scientists at several Australian universities to facilitate Honours and Masters-level research projects and is developing a substantial public profile including a Facebook page with more than 3,300 followers.
Gnaraloo’s terrestrial and marine landscape is also habitat to many flora and fauna other than endangered and threatened sea turtles. The area is a unique and rare remaining remnant of Australian wilderness. Gnaraloo’s management team established the Gnaraloo Wilderness Foundation on 12 January 2016. Its aim is to protect the native, terrestrial and marine, flora and fauna in, on and under the landscape at Gnaraloo for present and future generations. The Foundation is a separate legal entity to the Gnaraloo Station Trust and its Charter can be viewed on its website (www.gnaraloo.org).

Working with sea turtles since 2005