January March 2013 LOCAL OCEAN TRUST: WATAMU TURTLE WATCH Encouraging YOU to love your local ocean! Three months into the year 2013 already. We hope that you have all had a wonderful beginning to the New Year. We welcome you to our new quarterly newsletter and hope that you will enjoy it as much as you have our monthly newsletter. Nesting Programme The 2012 nesting season has continued well into March this year with a record of 60 nests. 9 clutches have been laid by one female which sets another Watamu record. Must be all the cheering Go Team Green, Go!!! Sadly for this big old mama, she had to crawl through structures and paintings on the beach left out at night. Following this incidence not once but twice, the LOT: WTW team intensified their campaign by conducting presentations to the beach operators and curio sellers. So far we have completed 3 presentations within the marine park and we will continue these to operators in the marine reserve. On board are local hotels whose staff have been educated on turtles and can frequently monitor the nests particularly those on their beach front. Beach operators and curio sellers are receiving education on the beach especially on nesting females and nest protection and why it is so important to keep Watamu nesting beaches natural.
12 nests have been laid since the beginning of the year, the 10 th marking the start of the 2013 nesting season. Some of the nests have been relocated from areas with high human activity for safety. We look forward to a very busy season and thank all of you who have adopted a Watamu nest. Your adoptions help us monitor & protect nests more effectively. Our extension nesting programme in Diani has also been recording nesting activity. A trip to Diani beaches to do GIS mapping showed that approx. 25% is suitable for nesting with lots of sea walls inhibiting nesting and other parts are rocky, with lots of artificial lighting directed on the beach. These are major threats to turtle nesting especially the sea walls and artificial lighting. Francis and Juma have relocated 2 nests this year of which both have already hatched. We have received donations which will help us to train two more nest monitors to assist them. Malindi has two nests, one of which we relocated with 113 eggs. 14 nests have hatched and 1,589 hatchlings have swum to the ocean at Watamu Marine Park in 2013 so far! By-Catch Net Release Programme The mighty leatherback, largest of the marine turtles, weighing up to 900 kg and is classified as critically endangered. Early this year a 1.5m dead leatherback was brought in by the fisherman Adam Ogden, she was badly decomposed and we could not establish the cause of death. A beautiful hawksbill, of record size for Watamu, was brought into the rehabilitation centre with serious neck injuries from a spear gun; unfortunately she died soon after being admitted. The sea grass eating greens also had their share of incidents when a full grown female was found floating in the creek. She had mating marks still visible so it was possible they had not healed due to a low immune system, she was exhausted, covered in algae, large barnacles, had a soft carapace - an indication she may have been suffering from infection for an
extended period of time. She died in rehab an hour after being admitted. An increase in the number of full grown green turtles being sighted and reported by fishermen in the programme tells us the nesting and breeding season is in full swing! For this quarter we have rescued 245 green turtles and 165 hawksbills. 40 % of the greens were newly caught and tagged!!! Over 9400 sea turtles have been rescued and released through this programme. Rehabilitation Centre George and Beauty were two juvenile green turtles in our rehab. Beauty had a soft carapace and was suffering from a mild infection, she began eating well and with the medication she received recovered beautifully and was released. George had trouble eating and was being tube fed but died from infection. Captain Hook, a hawksbill with a rather sad story, had his front left flipper chopped off, possibly with a machete. He underwent surgery to remove the excess bone and treat the wound. After his course of antibiotics the stitches were removed and he was released into the marine park. We have spotted him since and he is doing very well! Tiger Lily is currently with us in the rehab, she is a green turtle who came in with anemia and could not control her buoyancy. We wish her a speedy recovery Education Back to school again..a big congratulations to all the students for their performance last year! This quarter the topic covered was Mangrove ecosystems. Students learnt about the nine species of mangroves and focused on the 8 species found in our Mida ecosystem. This time students got their feet muddy in the murky Mida waters and helped plant seedlings. Primarily, they learnt the importance of the mangroves in the creek in respect to sea turtles and pelagic fish. How very exciting!! 27 patients have been admitted to the rehab so far this year. Fibropapillomatosis continues to affect our sea turtle population with 16 of the turtles admitted showing signs of the disease.
The Marine scout programme 2013 began with a very lively bonfire. Traditionally our grandparents would sit us round an open fire in the evenings and tell us stories that helped build character and educated us on life. During our bonfire the wazees told stories of how life was back then, the fish stocks and fishing equipment, the ocean and the changes they have seen in Watamu over 5 decades. KWS also joined us and took part in the story telling. Part of the programme also involved a beach cleanup for the scouts together with students from Madrassa. The cleanup was conducted on Watamu beach and 20+ bags of litter collected! A big thank you to Tony from Villa Marijani for always being on hand to help with the collection and disposal of collected litter! The scouts have also learnt marine definitions, how to identify species on our beach, conducted basic scientific surveys and visited Kenya Wildlife Service in Watamu to learn about the work the organization does. Watamu Primary School was a beneficiary of the LOT education programme when their wall mural from LOT on Mangrove protection received a facelift. Mayungu school had a well-received presentation on sea turtles too! 664 students have participated in the programme in 2013 from the 27 schools involved in our education programme. It is always great fun having the students visit the project! KUAPO Walk LOT, Kenyans United against Poaching (KUAPO) and WCK (Wildlife Clubs of Kenya) held a successful walk in Watamu in protest of the poaching of our Wildlife. 16 schools participating in our Education programme came out to join and pass the message that the killing MUST STOP! It was a fantastic day and a very big thank you to all who walked the talk. Community Outreach Our community groups have had regular meetings with our liaison officers encouraging them to continue with their projects while providing support through team building and advice on how to move forward. They have been preparing their yearly financial reports and presenting their expected plans for 2013. LOT has been present giving guidance and witnessing their accomplishments.
Some of the highlights in the community include: Beach cleanups. The Mapango - Blue Lagoon beach was observed to be very clean of plastics. Thanks to the dedication of LOT, curio sellers, beach operators, Watamu Youth Development and the Youth Future Concern group who conduct their clean ups regularly. We encourage you to follow their example. Restoration of mangrove depleted areas continues with the LOT team and eco-visitors planting 56,300 seedlings from our LOT nursery plus another 5410 seedlings collected from the mangrove forest. LOT indigenous tree nursery now has over 400 seedlings of Red Sandalwood, Kapok, Passion and Tamarind trees among others. They are for community groups to plant in their homes as a step towards reforestation. If we each plant a tree then we will be making the change we want to see. Jipe Moyo Womens group received training on their beekeeping initiative on how to inspect, clean, smoke as well as harvest honey from the hives. This time they have harvested 12 litres of sweet honey. 8 Community members attended the LOT first aid refresher course on animal bites and near drowning, with US Navy assistance. LOT gave each member a starter first aid kit containing bandages, plasters, savlon, cotton wool, sterile gauze and antibiotic powder. We must commend Mwamko Mpya women s group taking care of orphans and disadvantaged children in the community. Through self-fundraising they have taken care of at least 70 orphans to date. LOT conducted training with the Jimba group, still in its formative stages, on minute keeping, record keeping as well as monthly work plans. Other News IOSEA profile of the month in March was on Local Ocean Trust. Please check out their website and have a read of the article. http://ioseaturtles.org LOT has been strongly petitioning the proposed whale shark sanctuary in the South Coast of Kenya. More details on this petition can be found on www.cordioea/whaleshark/ We hope you have all had a chance to watch the BBC Africa series with Sir David Attenborough. An amazing show, I am sure you all agree and we are very proud to feature in the series.
You can also click on the link below and like it of Fikiri on the DWCF facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/pages/disney-worldwide-conservation-fund/35284666150 Appreciation We thank all of you who have been with us this far, a special thanks goes to all of our donors and eco-visitors, we are glad to have had such wonderful people who are passionate about conservation. To all those who provided transport and refreshments during the KUAPO walk, to all who came through for the much needed donation of children s clothes to Gede Special School and to all guests who visited the project. THANK YOU!!