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Hawksbill
turtles still nest at Anse Intendance in reasonable numbers
and due to its habit of coming ashore to nest in daylight
hours, this species is a particularly good indicator of the
beach ecosystem and degree of disturbance. The hawksbill
turtle is prone to disturbance and can quite easily be
“frightened” back in to the water before it has
successfully laid its eggs. There are also issues with
respect to the availability of suitable nesting habitat and
the potential impacts of lighting regimes on hatchling
turtles to be considered.
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Seychelles
is one of the top five Hawksbill turtle nesting
areas in the world.
Photo: Jeanne Mortimer
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Other factors relating to the broader beach environment
include the management and maintenance of beachfront
vegetation, solid waste management and limiting the impacts
of human passage on dune structure etc…
This project aims to address these issues and develop a
model that may be extrapolated to analogous situations in
Seychelles and abroad.
Initial steps taken include:
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the
design and production of an information leaflet for
guests at the hotel pertaining to the project and in
particular as to how they should behave if they
encounter turtles on the beach. |
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Evening presentations on the project and turtles in
general to hotel guests. |
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The
monitoring and recording of nesting turtles with the
data to be fed into the database being established
under the “Strategic Management of Turtle
Populations” Project that is being implemented by
MCSS with funds from the British Foreign and
Commonwealth Office. |
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The
mapping of sand movement through time as a
contribution to the national beach monitoring
database. |
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