Achievement

Report Curieuse September 2016

Report Title

Curieuse Islands Lemon Shark and Hawksbill Seasons Begin

Objective

Long-term objectives
To increase scientific knowledge and baseline data on the health and ecosystems on
Curieuse Island.
Short-term objectives
To undertake lemon shark tagging project in Q1, Q3, Q4.
To undertake hawksbill turtle nesting surveys in Q1, Q3, Q4.

Summary

Here on Curieuse Island, GVI conducts a number of scientific surveys in order to widen our
knowledge and data on the health of the island and its ecosystems. The 2016 season for both our
Sicklefin lemon shark and Hawksbill nesting survey began this September with our capture of this
years first shark pup and with the team tagging our first Hawksbill turtles of this season and marking
the nests.

Report

Here on Curieuse Island, GVI works with the Seychelles National Parks Authority (SNPA) in order to
meet our objectives. We conduct six different biological projects in order to widen our scientific
knowledge and baseline data on the health of the island and its ecosystems. As the year has
progressed, we have all been eagerly anticipating the beginning of two of our projects in particular.
These projects focus on the tagging of Sicklefin lemon sharks and surveying the nesting activity of
the Hawksbill turtles that nest on the island. The 2016 season for both these projects was due to
begin at this time of year and there was much excitement amongst the staff and volunteers when
they finally did.

Our sea turtle project monitors the nesting activity on the beaches of Curieuse Island, focusing
largely on the Hawksbills when they begin coming up on to the beaches to lay their eggs, though
Green turtles nest to a lesser degree all year round. Our staff and volunteers patrol the beaches
regularly, looking for signs of turtle activities, hopefully finding nests that have been successfully laid
and with luck for the turtles themselves. If turtles are found on the beach, data is taken such as
measurements, distinguishing marks, and they are tagged if necessary. Also, if timing allows the eggs
are counted and the nests are marked, our team will then monitor the nests and eventually excavate
them to determine the success of the nest after hatching.

The turtles first arrived here on the island this year on the morning of the 26th of September as our
patrol team set out to check our largest beach, Grande Anse. This Hawksbill turtle was found as soon
as the team came on to the beach, and she had already selected her nesting site, dug out her body
pit and egg chamber and begun to lay. The team readied their equipment and waited until she had
finished laying her eggs, marked her nest and checked her for identity tags in her front flippers
which she had from a previous season. This female was then measured, with a carapace (or shell)

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length of 81cm. Once the measurements were complete and she had finished covering and
disguising her nest, she returned to the sea leaving a very happy GVI team behind her.

The very next day, our nesting season continued with a second hawksbill being found on our most
northerly beach, Anse Badamier. Again this female was found mid-way through laying her eggs, and
she had a carapace length of 89cm. This was our first turtle of the season with no tags, so along with
all the other data that was collected, two tags were also put in her front flippers.

Our Sicklefin lemon shark capture and tagging project is now in its third year. Adult female lemon
sharks give birth once every two years, meaning this year's pups are very likely to be from the
mothers that give birth to the pups we caught and tagged in our first year. We conduct this project
in an area known as the Turtle Pond, a bay area surrounded by mangrove habitat, which is largely
protected from the elements of the open ocean. It is this lagoon that the Lemon shark mothers use
as a nursery to give birth to their pups and we use specialised techniques to capture the young
sharks, taking certain biological data and tagging them, in order to be able to confidently identify
them in the future.

We have gone out looking for sharks continuously this year and up until the 29th September, we
have been catching Lemon sharks from last year's season, which were larger in size and often
already tagged. This however has given us the chance to record important data which allows us to
monitor them, whether they appear to be healthy and over time get an idea of how fast they are
growing and putting on weight. A few days after the first turtle was worked up, we caught our first
new born Lemon shark pup of this year. This was a very exciting moment and one we had all been
hoping would happen soon, this year's sharking season had begun! This was shark capture 192, a
small male with an umbilical scar that was only partially closed, meaning he was definitely born this
year. He was promptly weighed and measured by our team, at 61.2cm long and 1.5kg in weight, as
well as being tagged so that we are able to monitor him in the future.

The start of these project seasons has marked the beginning of a busy and extremely exciting time
here on Curieuse, with staff and volunteers working hard to gather as much data as possible. This
data can then be used by the appropriate authorities in future decision making, regarding both the
protection of these species as well as the island and its surrounding waters as a whole.

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