Emile Pemberton

Nevis Sea Turtle Conservation Project

Hawksbill dashes for sea.

Nesting leatherback in May.

Ginger laying.

Pemberton saws away with the hacksaw.

Town/RegionCountryCategoriesDate
NevisSaint Kitts and NevisCentral and Latin America, Marine7 Jun 2010

The Nevis Sea Turtle Conservation Project seeks to tag as many turtles as possible that nest on the main rookeries on the island. Turtles have been poached from the beaches while they have been nesting in the past so one of the main aims of this project is to protect all nesting turtles. The project seeks further to extend the tagging programme to those sea turtles that are foraging offshore the island that may not necessarily nest on Nevis. Public education is a critical component of this project and this will be done by holding summer sea turtle programmes for children, by Nevis Turtle Group (NTG) members appearing on radio and television programmes to discuss sea turtle conservation and by organizing contests among schoolchildren that will get them involved in sea turtle conservation. Furthermore, groups of children and adults will be taken to the beaches to observe sea turtles nesting and to assist in doing beach patrols. Student volunteers will be engaged to assist especially with the night and early morning patrols with the aim of producing a cadre of persons to continue the work of the Nevis Turtle Group. Additionally, the group will continue to work with beach front property owners to help make all beaches turtle friendly.

The NTG started sea turtle conservation work in 2001 to 2002 when it identified the main nesting beaches on the island. The project started with one and then two volunteers doing patrols during the day. In 2003 a group of four volunteers started doing the night patrols and the tagging of sea turtles on the two main nesting beaches on Nevis. These persons were Charles Parris, Rene Walters, Angela Walters and E. Lemuel Pemberton.

The main nesting beaches were found to be on the northwest coast of the island and only hawksbills were observed nesting during the first year of beach patrols. Subsequently green turtles and leatherbacks were also found nesting on the island’s beaches. From a small group of four persons monitoring the beaches conservation efforts have grown to the extent that on Friday nights (Family Night) there are regularly over twenty persons participating in the beach patrols. It is hoped that conservation efforts will continue to grow from strength to strength and that sea turtles can become the flagship species for marine conservation on Nevis.

Read about Emile's previous work http://www.ruffordsmallgrants.org/rsg/projects/emile_pemberton or for further information contact mugabe@hotmail.com or visit www.nevisturtlegroup.org

Project Update: June 2010

On August 7th 2006 a satellite transmitter was attached to a sea turtle found on the beach that is located between Cliff dwellers and Mosquito Bay. The beach is known locally as Jacks Bay and is on the coastline due west of Miss June’s Cuisine (in some literature this beach may be referred to as Jones Bay). This was part of an effort carried out by the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, the Four Seasons Resort, Nevis and the Nevis Turtle Group. The sea turtle was named Nevis. One day later a satellite transmitter was attached to another sea turtle named Mango. This was part of an effort to find out where sea turtles that nest on Nevis go to after they leave our beaches. While Mango headed off into the western Caribbean to its foraging grounds off the Miskito Cays of Nicaragua Nevis stayed close to home foraging in the area of Anguilla, St. Maarten and St. Barthelemy. Both sea turtles stopped transmitting after a period of about 8 months for Nevis to 2 years for Mango.

On the night of June 15th 2010 two members of the Nevis Turtle Group, Jevaunito Huggins and Lemuel Pemberton, were conducting a beach patrol at Jacks Bay. At about 9:45 PM they encountered a sea turtle nesting on the beach. On close examination they noticed that it had a satellite transmitter attached to its back. At first it was thought to be Ginger, a sea turtle tagged with a satellite transmitter in 2007 that was still transmitting and known to be offshore the island after leaving its foraging grounds off Montserrat. However, it proved to be Mango, seen for the first time nesting 4 years after it had been tagged. The transmitter was removed and will be refurbished and used again to track another sea turtle. This is further proof that hawksbill sea turtles are faithful to their nesting beaches.


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