Earthcare Park Landcare Group, East Maitland, has scored the Hunter's first turtle island. The island is a refuge to protect turtle eggs. Video by Marina Neil
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00:00Turtles are basically scavengers, but they're considered to be the vacuum cleaners of any
00:09marine environment.
00:10The Turtle Island itself is all about the conservation of turtles in the Hunter Valley.
00:17This island is the first of the islands for the Hunter Valley, and because we've got a
00:24webcam on the Turtle Island, it allows us to visually see what sort of visitations we
00:30have on the island, particularly from the turtles.
00:31The main turtle that we have in this area is the long-necked turtle, but we're hoping
00:39that we'll be able to find the short-necked turtle, which is a new subspecies, and the
00:48Turtle Island is a representation of what we're trying to do here to try and improve
00:53the turtles for the future.
00:56The biggest problems that we have here, and also right around Australia, is the predation
01:01that occurs on turtle eggs and turtles from foxes.
01:05By building a Turtle Island, the Turtle Island divorces itself from the land area, which
01:15makes it very, very difficult for predation to occur on the island.
01:20Once again, it does allow foxes to actually get to the island and also to get to the eggs.