Five of the world’s seven species of marine turtles are found in Fiji’s tropical waters. Green and hawksbill turtles are the most common and nest on the sandy beaches of some of Fiji’s 300-plus islands. But globally, green turtles are endangered, and hawksbill turtles critically endangered, their populations having reduced by at least 80% in the last three generations. For a species that has been around since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, humans have wreaked havoc on their numbers. Climate change, habitat loss, illegal trade, and turtle by-catch are some of the risks turtles face, but conservation projects are helping some populations stay afloat.

WWF-Fiji is working with local communities to increase sea turtle populations through monitoring, better protection of priority nesting areas, and reducing turtle by-catch. Here, Lynn Vuli, team leader of the WWF turtle monitor volunteer group on Fiji’s Dravuni Island, points her boat’s captain in the direction of a turtle she’s sighted. Lynn is part of a network of community turtle monitors, known as daunivonu, which WWF-Fiji helped to establish in 2010.

In their most recent survey in March, the team went on a turtle quest – looking for nests, counting eggs, tagging turtles, and helping any hatchlings make it into the water. Pictured here, Ratu Viliame Tuinavadra finds a green turtle during freediving. Ratu is the village headman or Turaga ni Koro of Dravuni village, and is sharing valuable knowledge and experience with WWF while undertaking training to become a daunivonu. After a few measurements were taken, the turtle was released back into the waters surrounding Dravuni Island. Measuring turtles helps to determine their minimum size at sexual maturity and monitor sizes of nesting females in a nesting site or foraging ground.

A team led by Pita Qarau, senior turtle monitor of Yadua, carry out a night-time patrol on a beach of one of Fiji’s 500-plus islets. The team looks out for adult females that come ashore at night to dig their nests and lay eggs. The team uses red lights to avoid disturbing the adults with normal flashlights. Hawksbill turtles nest faster than any other species of marine turtle – they can complete the entire process in less than 45 minutes and can lay around 150-200 eggs at a time. They also tend to dig shallower nests than other turtles, often under vegetation including around mangroves; the erosion and flooding of nesting beaches in Fiji, caused by rising sea levels and increased storms, puts hawksbills particularly at risk.

A core goal of WWF’s marine turtles project in Fiji is that by 2026, priority national sites have better protection resulting in an increase in nesting activity. In this aerial shot, as part of their most recent survey, the turtle monitors visited four sites to check on nests, which involved searching for fresh turtle crawl tracks from the ocean, following the tracks across the sand to find nests, and documenting the nest locations with a GPS device. The latest field report observed that some green turtles were nesting further inland and under vegetation, which is unusual behaviour for this species. It’s currently unknown why they are doing this, though elders of Tuvuca village report it could be a sign of bad weather or an impending cyclone.

After the eggs hatch six to eight weeks later, the turtle monitor volunteers carefully count and record eggshells, unhatched eggs, and dead hatchlings to determine clutch size and hatching success. In this photo, Emosi Time shows an unhatched hawksbill turtle egg from an old nest. Climate change is not only impacting nesting site locations, but the turtle’s eggs, too. Higher sand temperatures on nesting beaches produce more females, and cooler sand temperatures produce more males. Given increasing temperatures across many beaches, more females are hatching, threatening breeding opportunities for future generations of marine turtles. Some populations of green turtles have produced hatchlings that are 99% female due to warmer nesting beaches.

This hawksbill turtle hatchling is making its way to the Pacific Ocean under the careful gaze of turtle monitors. Turtle hatchlings measure just 2-7cm, and both green and hawksbill turtles don’t mature until they’re over 20 years old. Life for a marine turtle is tough from day one. Even without human-induced threats, relatively few marine turtles survive their first year of life. Predators such as crabs, dogs, birds and fish often kill the hatchlings as they make their way from their nest to the shallows.

Once out at sea, turtles face threats from poaching, plastic pollution, and being accidentally captured in fishing gear. While it’s estimated that globally, only one in 1,000 hatchlings make it to adulthood, the dedication and determination of Fiji’s turtle monitors are ensuring that hatchlings monitored by WWF’s project, including these hawksbill hatchlings, only minutes old, are given the best start possible.

While the outlook for marine turtles remains uncertain, we know that working with local communities is an essential part of their conservation. WWF is working to develop and integrate community turtle management plans into existing community, provincial and national governance mechanisms. Since 2010, as the number of daunivonu has increased, there have been reports of rising numbers of nesting turtles and successful hatchlings, showing us there is hope for the future of these ancient mariners.To find out more about turtles, and to help protect these threatened ocean explorers and bring our world back to life, visit: support.wwf.org.uk/adopt-a-turtle.