NEWSLETTER

10 July 2011

GOOD NEWS

5 July 2011: the Bahamian government announced that all commercial shark fishing of the country’s territorial waters is prohibited.  

This is a major advance in Bahamian fisheries policy and regulations. The new regulations are the result of a major campaign by the Bahamas National Trust in partnership with the Pew Environmental Group and the result of a commitment by government to the natural resources of the Bahamas. 

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The last day before we left Crooked Island was one of the best. I hired Michael Carroll, a Landrail Point bonefish guide, to take me into the flats of Acklins and Crooked Island. We revisited the flat south of Lovely Bay where we had worked with Clarence Williams, and then Michael took me to Thompson Creek and Old Woman south of Crooked Island. The good news was no fibropapillomas and plenty of large turtles. It was clear the Acklins fishermen have been staying out of these flats.

 Just east of Old Woman three turtles ran off from in front of the boat, and we had to make a choice. Michael took after one, but I hollered at him to go after another that I thought was a hawksbill.  

“How can you tell?” 

“It looks like a hawksbill, and it’s behaving like one.” 

We caught the turtle after Michael had done some fancy driving over a rocky bar, and I showed Michael the difference between the green and hawksbill. When we got back to Landrail later that afternoon, Michael showed a picture of himself and the hawksbill to his 10 year old daughter, Melena, who said, “Beautiful hawksbill!”  When her father asked her how she knew, she said because the people from FOXY LADY had told her about turtles at Cabbage Hill Primary. So Melena, Michael, and I – three generations – had all learned more about sea turtles.

Captain Michael Carroll

As usual, when we can see the end of the season, time gets short. We ran up to Rum Cay, had a wonderful supper at Ruby Baine’s restaurant in Rum Cay with Marcus and Jenny Mitchell and family, and then headed on to Conception. 

Every time we go to Conception we feel the thrill, the gift of being there. Tropic birds fly overhead to greet you in the anchorage, laughing gulls gather on the speed boat, and in the crystal water you can always see fish – barracuda and box fish around the boat, southern sting rays and their symbiotic bar jacks crossing the bottom, schools of bait fish, lemon sharks, and the occasional bottle nosed dolphin. At sunset the odds of a green flash are excellent. 

And that is only a selection of what you see in the anchorage. Then you go up the creek, onto the land, circumnavigate the island, and you know there are not enough days in a life-time to see it all. So Barbara and I listened carefully to the weather, checked the tides, made a plan, and hoped we could stay until we ran out of fuel and water.

American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus), Conception Island

Barbara and I did work in Conception until we had tagged over 50 turtles and had run out of gas. On one survey pass in the deep hole (about 50 yards) Barbara counted 20 green turtles. Our work was enhanced by the two days we spent with Don and Denise Bermant who helped us tag turtles and added moral support. 

Then we steamed north to Cat Island to meet Barbara’s sister-in-law, Karen Buxton, and her son, Marty, who were with us for a week tagging in Cat Island. For the first time we tagged turtles in Musgrave Creek and Little Creek in New Bight. Mark Keasler had reported seeing an occasional turtle in these creeks, but we tagged four green turtles in Musgrave Creek and 5 in Little Creek. These creeks are part of the same mangrove system that includes Fernandez Creek and would get our vote as a potential national park and marine reserve. 

Spotted Sea Hare Taking a Ride on a Horse Conch, Fernandez Bay

The rest of the season was frenetic but wonderful. Barbara left in early June, and two days later Alex Henderson and a friend arrived from the National Trust. Because of a nagging problem with the outboard wiring harness, we tagged turtles in Cat Island for only two days before we had to run back toward Spanish Wells so Ron Pinder could fix the wiring. On the way we stopped in Cape Eleuthera to visit the Island School and made a run in the speed boat in wretched weather up to Starved Creek where the boys caught 10 really healthy green turtles in sloppy conditions. The boys flew out of Rock Sound the next afternoon on the same plane that carried two more interns, Whitney Knowles and Venetheria Gray. That afternoon the ladies tagged three more green turtles in Starved Creek before it was too dark. In Starved Creek we also saw about a dozen mature nurse sharks aggregating for their annual reproductive activity in the shallow water.

Whitney and Venetheria

In Spanish Wells we tagged turtles north of Royal Island, in Corrie Sound, and in the Sounds on the eastern side of North Eleuthera before the girls took the ferry back to Nassau and I ran, “me-one,” back down to Cat Island to meet my grandson, Findlay Mulligan, and our family friends, Chris and Henry Lee.

The weather was excellent so we were able to get back to Conception where, among other excitement, the boys spent 15 minutes swimming with a bottlenose dolphin just outside the creek. We also went out to South Rocks to snorkel near the shore and see hundreds of sooty terns nesting on the cay.

Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncates) in Conception  

When Findlay and the Lees departed, Terran Moss (12 year old son of Junior and Cindy Moss) came on board for the delivery to Spanish Wells to lay the boat up for the summer. We had plenty of work, but Terran and I did get another day in the Sounds with Jean-Ann Wilson, Cord Higgs, and Rachel Ricks and her son, Storm. For many years the Harbour Island fishermen devastated the turtle stocks in the Sounds. They ate the meat and sold the shells to the ladies in the tourist market. Now, after the turtle ban, it appears the men are leaving the turtles alone and the population is growing in number and average size. 

Cat Island and Spanish Wells Students Work Together

SEASON SUMMARY: 

·        Captured 412 turtles 

·        Confirmed fibropapillomas on the west side of Andros and at the entrance to Turtle Sound in Crooked Island 

·        Tagged turtles in several new creeks in Andros, Barra Terre, Little Exuma, and Crooked Island - Acklins 

·        Observed increased turtle populations in New Bight Cat Island, Starved Creek in South Eleuthera, the Sounds in North Eleuthera, and the flats north of Stella Maris Long Island 

We want to thank two anonymous donors who made significant contributions to our work. The donations compensated for increases in the price of fuel, and they financed the Bahamas National Trust intern cruises. We also purchased an LCD projector that we used in all our school presentations.

LANDRAIL POINT

24 April 2011

Photos by Jennifer Herrick

Foxy Lady and Bird Rock Light

The anchorage off the beach between Bird Rock and Landrail Point is one of our favorites, especially since there is a healthy green turtle habitat off Jesse Phillip’s house 200 yards away. 

Barbara and I celebrated Easter with our Seventh Day Adventist friends in Landrail on Saturday and had lunch with Willie Gibson and her family after the service. If Willie Gibson mentions a meal you just say, “Yes, please.” Willie is a great cook, and her smile lights up the darkest of days. 

Sunday morning we picked up “Captain” Leo Gibson, Nigel Sands, and Tommy Moss in Landrail, and Jennifer Herrick joined us to take pictures. Leo is now fifteen, but he earned the family rank of Captain several years ago when he announced his intention to become a professional mariner and began driving his father’s boats. 

So we took off for the turtle grass pasture in front of Jesse Phillip’s pink house where we tag turtles every year. Barbara and Tommy took turns as lookout, and Leo was the lead diver followed by Nigel. When the turtles slowed down I got in and Barbara steered. 

Tagging and recapturing turtles is usually our main purpose, but we are also studying the escape behavior of sea turtles and their possible ability to camouflage themselves as protection from predators. The turtles off the pink house are almost all dark brown with beautiful markings, and the escape behavior of the larger turtles is predictable - swim west into deeper water.

 

Tommy Spots the Turtle and Leo is Ready to Dive 

Our strategy is to spot the turtles right near the beach in shallow water and try to keep the boat between the turtles and the deep water so we can see them more easily and tire them out before they go deep and are harder to dive up. Green sea turtles have not survived for millions of years, however, by making it easy for the opposition.

The Chase is On

We got lucky with the first turtle that stayed in shallow water, and Leo dove it up easily – a recapture from last year.

Leo with a Green Turtle Recapture

The second turtle was a different deal. The turtle was larger and headed for the deep, and we ran wide open to keep up. Barbara began to have real trouble seeing the turtle, but it slowed down, and Leo went in to tow behind the boat. Finally the turtle slowed way down, and I went over. The turtle lay on the bottom, but neither Leo nor I could get down to forty feet. Slowly the turtle began to move, and I knew we could get it when it came up to blow. That took another half an hour while the turtle swam out to the wall which starts at 70’. Leo caught it when it finally came up for air. 

The next chase started out the same. After a short time in the shallows, the turtle swam under the boat and headed offshore. Leo went over and we towed him fast until the turtle slowed. Again I went in and the turtle lay down in fifty feet. Within twenty feet of the green turtle was a hawksbill resting and looking up at us. Nigel and Tommy were now in the water, and I told them to watch the hawksbill while Barbara hovered nearby watching all of us. After a few minutes the hawksbill started to move away, so we had to make a choice. We want more DNA samples from hawksbill, so we abandoned the green, and we all took off after the hawksbill which swam slowly out to the wall. 

I lost sight of the hawksbill, but Leo has younger eyes and kept swimming and pointing down. We followed that turtle back into forty feet and back out to the wall twice before it headed for the surface. Hawksbill do not head for the surface with the same sense of mission as green turtles. That turtle toyed with us, coming close, diving down, coming up, and then finally jetting away out of reach, blowing and diving back to the bottom and back out to the wall. 

The same drill again, and the boys all followed him. Then the turtle finally started to ease inshore, and I thought Leo might be able to dive him up, but the turtle never lay down long enough. I yelled at Barbara that we would keep at it, and she just laughed. I don’t know how many minutes went by, but the turtle headed back for the surface and started his toying routine again. I made a shallow dive, and he did a one-eighty and took off toward Leo. Big mistake for the turtle. Leo swam for his life and just caught the hawksbill as it hit the surface. 

Hawksbill Salute

That capture took an hour and a half. Everyone was tired, and Jennifer had gotten some great shots but had to go ashore to tend her baby. We ran out to Foxy Lady for peanut butter and jelly and back in to anchor off the beach. Then we worked up the turtles, and the boys paid close attention to the data and our lectures on the biology. It is always useful to show the differences between the hawksbill and the greens and try to understand how the physiology of each species suits its way of life. And we had all just witnessed differences in escape behavior.

Captain Leo, Tommy Moss, and Nigel Sands

And so ended a fantastic day. We had caught only three turtles, but all were healthy, and one was a hawksbill. The joy of the day was spending so much time in the water with the boys and watching the turtles swimming in their environment.