TURTLES

Maziwe Island is a small coral island eight kilometres off the Ushongo Beach. The island has long been a nesting site for green turtles. The island was one of many that lined the coral reef fringing the Tanzania coast. Up to the mid-1970's Maziwe Island had a forest of Casuarina trees. By the end of the decade the forest had been washed away by the ocean.

There are many stories explaining the disappearance of the Casuarinas. One is that they were cut down for firewood; another that they were destroyed by goats browsing on the young trees; a third because Uganda's army were going to invade the island and it was feared the forest would provide cover to shell the local town of Pangani - the forest had in fact already disappeared by the time of the Uganda-Tanzania war of 1979; a fourth, owing to rising sea levels resulting from global warming; and a fifth, which is the most likely, is that with deforestation by the local people for firewood and timber the sea eventually cut through and the trees became waterlogged and died off.

Whatever the reason, Maziwe Island is now covered by the sea at high tides with just a small piece of sandy beach as a reminder of its past glory as a Casuarina forest. The coral reef around Maziwe Island is still pristine and a great place for snorkeling and diving. In 2009 it was declared part of the Ceolocanth National Marine Park.

The green turtles that originally hatched from nests on the Maziwe Island now return to the island periodically to lay their eggs. Because the island is covered by water for most of the time the nests are inundated and the eggs get wet; they then turn mouldy and rot. To save the eggs and bring them to the hatching stage, an NGO turtle project employs local villagers - some of them volunteers - to dig up the eggs and translocate them to beaches on the mainland such as at Ushongo. The project has also translocated eggs to other beaches along the coast including at Saadani National Park 60 kms south of Ushongo.

After an incubation period of three months the turtles are sufficiently developed to emerge from their eggs which are at a depth of about 30 cms. After emerging from the nest, life really begins for the young turtle. There priority at this stage of their life is to get to the sea, and fast. They are rather clumsy and slow on land and hence prey to gulls, crabs, and other predators. At Ushongo the area of the nests is cleared for easy access to the edge of the ocean, a distance of 10-20 metres from the nest depending on the height of the tide. On reaching the water the little turtles swim rapidly away, emerging every few yards for a gasp of air. Their life in the ocean has started; only to lay their eggs will the turtles return to land.

The problem of collecting the eggs is to be able to observe when the eggs are laid and to collect them as soon as possible before they are affected by sea water. This means that there has to be recent visual evidence that the turtles have been around - turtle tracks look like small bulldozer tracks. The egg collecting has to be within 12 hours of the eggs being layed by the female turtle, that is, before the next high tide. Also there are predators to contend with.

The hatching ground for the turtles at Ushongo is located at Kasa Divers who have undertaken to monitor the nests. There may be up to 20 nests at a time, all marked with their date of collection, estimated date of hatching, and the number of eggs. There are usually about 150 eggs to a nest with 95% reaching the hatching stage. From the nest it is from 5 to 20 metres to the beach depending on the time of the tides and whether it is high or low.

As the nests are in a protected area the threat is reduced of monitor lizards, mongoose and other predators. Apart from mammals, there are also other predators such as crabs. When the young turtles leave the nest, on the short distance down the beach to the ocean they have to contend with the small "ghost" crabs that will grab the young turtle and drag it into their hole in the sand. The crabs are very common and at night at high tide are in their tens of thousands, a remarkable sight in the moonlight or in the beam of a flashlight.

Female green turtles return to their birth site after thirty years to lay their eggs. Hopefully the green turtle will be back to significant numbers and continue to flourish, thanks to the many people who have helped to save them.

Maziwe Island is not the only site for green turtle nests. Other nesting sites have been found on the mainland shores on beaches not far from Ushongo. Generally, however, turtles like secure areas away from human habitation and terrestrial predators such as crabs, mongoose and monitor lizards. The monitor lizard can be more than two metres in length and their long sharp claws have no difficulty digging up turtle eggs.

For more information on turtles in Tanzania and the western Indian Ocean see www.seasense.com . Sea Sense is an non-government organization working with Tanzania's coastal villagers to help turtles survive.

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