Thonga Beach Lodge and the Mabibi Campsite
Articles
November 2010
Turning Turtle by Genevieve Swart
Articles
November 2010
Turning Turtle by Genevieve Swart
See Also
Dlinza Forest Aerial Boardwalk
The Karkloof Crane and Conservation Centre
Ongoye Forest Birding Camp
Thonga Beach Lodge and the Mabibi Campsite
The Wakkerstroom Wetland Reserve and Training Centre
Marutswa Forest Trail and Boardwalk
Southern KZN Birding Route
The Karkloof Crane and Conservation Centre
Ongoye Forest Birding Camp
Thonga Beach Lodge and the Mabibi Campsite
The Wakkerstroom Wetland Reserve and Training Centre
Marutswa Forest Trail and Boardwalk
Southern KZN Birding Route
Location Info
Special thanks for images
Rod MacLeod: Wildside Magazine
Isibindi Africa Lodges
Tim Neary
Rod MacLeod: Wildside Magazine
Isibindi Africa Lodges
Tim Neary
They’re no longer just a piece of meat. Communities and tourism entrepreneurs are realising the true value of loggerheads and leatherbacks.
For a lifetime, guided by an internal GPS that puts Garmin to shame, Joana D’arc has returned to a 30km stretch of sand between Ponta Malongane and Ponta Dobela in Mozambique.
Joana D’arc is a leatherback turtle, one of the largest living reptiles, a species that has trawled our oceans for over 100-million years but now faces extinction. She lays clutches of 60 to 120 eggs about four times a season but only about one percent of her babies will reach maturity.
That we know anything at all about her miraculous journey is thanks to the Lubombo Turtle Monitoring Project, which covers over 300km of Maputaland coastline from St Lucia in South Africa to Inhaca Island in Mozambique.
The spirit of co-operation fostered by the Lubombo Transfrontier National Park, Africa’s first coastal and marine ‘peace park’, made the cross-border effort possible. It’s a project involving the Peace Parks Foundation, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Maputo Special Reserve and the Mozambican Marine Turtle Working Group.
One side effect of the project is that a popular brand of ecotourism has come out of its shell: local guides are leading turtle tours, nighttime walks to see egg-laying then, later, tiny hatchlings making a mad dash for the sea.
The Lubombo project employs locals as monitors who check, measure and tag turtles. ‘On the last season we had 20 locals working on the project,’ says Miguel Goncalves, marine manager for Mozambique’s Ponta Do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve. ‘We expect to increase this number during the coming season to 30.’
Local involvement is crucial as communities still kill nesting turtles and rob nests of eggs, used in food or traditional medicine. Research and tourism give live turtles value.
But the big threats are habitat destruction, pollution and fishing. Dr Scotty Kyle, a resource ecologist at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, says: ‘The fishing threats include offshore and beach seine netting, anti-shark netting in South Africa and “long lining” by commercial fishers.’
The monitoring season starts in October and runs until the end of March, with the peak period being November and December. Hatchlings start popping out around Christmas time, says Scotty. ‘January is the best bet for visitors to see both nesting and hatchlings, and to see loggerhead and leatherback turtles.’www.peaceparks.org
For a lifetime, guided by an internal GPS that puts Garmin to shame, Joana D’arc has returned to a 30km stretch of sand between Ponta Malongane and Ponta Dobela in Mozambique.
Joana D’arc is a leatherback turtle, one of the largest living reptiles, a species that has trawled our oceans for over 100-million years but now faces extinction. She lays clutches of 60 to 120 eggs about four times a season but only about one percent of her babies will reach maturity.
That we know anything at all about her miraculous journey is thanks to the Lubombo Turtle Monitoring Project, which covers over 300km of Maputaland coastline from St Lucia in South Africa to Inhaca Island in Mozambique.
The spirit of co-operation fostered by the Lubombo Transfrontier National Park, Africa’s first coastal and marine ‘peace park’, made the cross-border effort possible. It’s a project involving the Peace Parks Foundation, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Maputo Special Reserve and the Mozambican Marine Turtle Working Group.
One side effect of the project is that a popular brand of ecotourism has come out of its shell: local guides are leading turtle tours, nighttime walks to see egg-laying then, later, tiny hatchlings making a mad dash for the sea.
The Lubombo project employs locals as monitors who check, measure and tag turtles. ‘On the last season we had 20 locals working on the project,’ says Miguel Goncalves, marine manager for Mozambique’s Ponta Do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve. ‘We expect to increase this number during the coming season to 30.’
Local involvement is crucial as communities still kill nesting turtles and rob nests of eggs, used in food or traditional medicine. Research and tourism give live turtles value.
But the big threats are habitat destruction, pollution and fishing. Dr Scotty Kyle, a resource ecologist at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, says: ‘The fishing threats include offshore and beach seine netting, anti-shark netting in South Africa and “long lining” by commercial fishers.’
The monitoring season starts in October and runs until the end of March, with the peak period being November and December. Hatchlings start popping out around Christmas time, says Scotty. ‘January is the best bet for visitors to see both nesting and hatchlings, and to see loggerhead and leatherback turtles.’www.peaceparks.org
Egg Them On
Watch life begin for a reptile as old as the dinosaurs. Isibindi’s Thonga Beach Lodge in iSimangaliso Wetland Park and Kosi Forest Lodge in Kosi Bay Nature Reserve both run turtle tours for guests. ‘We start tours at the beginning of November up until mid-January,’ says guide Blessing Mgomezulu.
He drives guests to Bhanga Nek, a remote, protected strand where turtles have come for millennia to lay eggs. Here, the old ladies - by our standards, aged 90 to 100 years - lay up to 120 eggs per clutch. It takes at least two hours for a female turtle to make her majestic journey up the beach, dig a hole, lay her eggs, then return to the ocean, says Blessing. Strict rules on photography apply and, to avoid disturbing the stars, guides carry infrared lights.
Tours, from 4.30pm to midnight, cost R450. www.isibindiafrica.co.za
Article courtesy of kulula.com
Watch life begin for a reptile as old as the dinosaurs. Isibindi’s Thonga Beach Lodge in iSimangaliso Wetland Park and Kosi Forest Lodge in Kosi Bay Nature Reserve both run turtle tours for guests. ‘We start tours at the beginning of November up until mid-January,’ says guide Blessing Mgomezulu.
He drives guests to Bhanga Nek, a remote, protected strand where turtles have come for millennia to lay eggs. Here, the old ladies - by our standards, aged 90 to 100 years - lay up to 120 eggs per clutch. It takes at least two hours for a female turtle to make her majestic journey up the beach, dig a hole, lay her eggs, then return to the ocean, says Blessing. Strict rules on photography apply and, to avoid disturbing the stars, guides carry infrared lights.
Tours, from 4.30pm to midnight, cost R450. www.isibindiafrica.co.za
Article courtesy of kulula.com
Eco-tourism = Community + Environment