Earthwatch Award Recipient Summary
Awardee: Joan Whittier, PhD
Affiliation: University of Queensland
Project: Green Turtles of Malaysia
Award: 2001 Aviva/Earthwatch Award for Climate Change Research
Project Synopsis
Since 1999, Dr. Joan Whittier has worked with Earthwatch volunteers and Kamarrudin Ibrahim, a conservation officer with the Malaysian Department of Fisheries, to respond to the challenges faced by endangered sea turtles in the region. Although government-sponsored hatcheries were already in place, in an attempt to reverse a 60 percent decline in green turtles over the past 50 years, their success was limited by a high percentage of unviable hatchlings and a skewed sex ratio. Whittier's Earthwatch teams have monitored hatchery and natural nests to discover the impact of nest location, beach conditions, and sand temperatures on nesting success and the health and sex ratio of hatchlings. Working on the mainland and the remote island of Pulau Redang, volunteers patrol beaches for nesting turtles through the night and gather data on hatchling health and performance in the hatchery. Information gained about the best methods for maximizing production of healthy hatchlings of a balanced sex ratio are directly applied at all hatcheries in the region by Mr. Ibrahim.
Award Outcomes
The Aviva Award allowed Dr. Whittier to:
· Purchase Thermochron data loggers to more effectively monitor nest temperatures
· Support a student's research on environmental impacts on hatchling health
· Provide for the compilation and analysis of hatchery data from Malaysian Department of Fisheries
· Purchase a boat and outboard motor for access to an additional island hatchery
Dr. Whittier used the award money to expand her team's focus on the biology of green turtle eggs and their development, particularly the incubation process in hatchery environments. She purchased Thermocron data loggers, which were placed in individual hatchery nests to monitor nest environments more effectively. The instruments, made by Dallas Semiconductors, allowed the researchers to determine the effects of nest depth on nest temperature and resultant hatchling health and vigor. They found that deeper nests lowered nest temperatures, and produced more viable hatchlings, more effectively than additional shading. The results will make hatchery programs better equipped to reverse the trend of population decline.
The grant also supported the research of a recent postgraduate student, Jason van de Merwe, on the effect of other aspects of the nest environment, such as the location of eggs within the nest, on hatchling health at emergence. Mr. van de Merwe also assisted in the compilation of data from the Malaysian Department of Fisheries on hatchery nest environments. Together, these data give a fuller understanding of the nest temperature, depth, position, and other parameters required for healthy hatchling production in the hatchery environment. These results were presented at the International Sea Turtle Symposium in 2003.
Finally, funds from the award helped the researchers to purchase a boat and outboard motor for visits to a hatchery in the Perhentian Islands, north of their research site on Pulau Redang. The site was identified by co-principal investigator Mr. Ibrahim in 2001, and Earthwatch teams now have access to monitor the hatchery, which was in urgent need of protection from human impacts. The result is the protection of another 300 endangered green turtle nests, producing approximately 30,000 hatchlings each year.
Publications and Papers
Pending
Quotes
"The extra funding enabled us to do much more innovative and cutting-edge research. It also helped support student projects that otherwise would not have been possible. Without the extra funding provided by agencies like Aviva, or more recently, The Earthwatch Vodaphone Foundation, the project just breaks even. So the extra project funding is instrumental in keeping the project moving into new research areas!"
"The Aviva award also helped us raise our research profile, and provided a point of contact with CGU Malaysia, who have since visited the project site and donated supplies. We particularly are keen to involve local Malaysia corporate interests in the project research and education objectives."