Each morning, these volunteers patrol this beach in New Caledonia. Their mission: protecting baby turtles. Brut nature followed them.
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00We can think that over there, we have a turtle nest.
00:10We are on the site of the Percée rock.
00:12It's a special place because it's the first site of bridge for the big-headed turtles in New Caledonia.
00:18It's the second site of bridge at the level of the South Pacific.
00:22So it's a site that really has a lot of importance for this species.
00:30We are on the site of the Percée rock.
00:32It's a special place because it's the first site of bridge at the level of the South Pacific.
00:36It's the second site of bridge at the level of the South Pacific.
00:40It's a special place because it's the first site of bridge at the level of the South Pacific.
00:59We are looking for traces of baby turtles.
01:03The baby turtles that just lay on this beach.
01:06And the babies that come out 54 days after us.
01:10I hope to be able to see some emergents, of course.
01:13These are just animals that have existed since prehistory.
01:15And maybe we, with the little grain of sand that we are going to put today,
01:18we will participate in saving several.
01:26Hello.
01:27Hello.
01:28Do you have any fish?
01:29No.
01:30No.
01:31We are looking for turtles.
01:32We are looking for turtles.
01:33OK.
01:36I just remind you of the regulations.
01:38The first regulation is to stay at 10 meters.
01:41The second thing is the prohibition of light.
01:43Earlier, I saw a light from afar.
01:45You must have just arrived.
01:47The lights are strictly prohibited on the beach.
01:50It attracts baby turtles.
01:52In fact, it prevents them from returning to the water.
01:54That's it.
01:55Everything is quiet.
01:56Have a good day.
01:57Have a good morning.
01:58Goodbye.
01:59Goodbye.
02:02If we listen to the stories of the elders here,
02:05tens of years ago,
02:07the beach was covered with turtles during the harvest period.
02:10Today, it's not like that anymore.
02:12We have a lot less.
02:13So we have to intervene to protect them
02:15and make sure that there are always some who come back.
02:26First, we have a nice spade fan.
02:29I don't see much, but we have it.
02:32If we go up the fan without walking on it,
02:35we should be able to find the nest.
02:37So when a nest emerges, we don't intervene.
02:40We let it emerge naturally.
02:43The less we do, the better.
02:45But it happens that there are some babies
02:47that remain a little stuck under the first 15 centimeters of sand
02:51and then risk to cook with the heat that comes with the sun.
02:58So when it's like that,
02:59we look at the first 15 centimeters
03:01to see if there is a baby stuck in this place.
03:04We can think that there is a turtle nest over there.
03:18Everything we do on the nest
03:20is things for which we have a specific authorization.
03:24A special authorization from the province.
03:26We don't do it like that.
03:27It's our job.
03:28It's important to make it clear
03:30that people don't come and don't think
03:33that it's something that can be done without having a negative impact.
03:43If we don't start to protect the place where they lay,
03:46the eggs and the babies that will hatch,
03:49we end up with very few babies hatching
03:51and joining the sea,
03:52knowing that we have 1 in 1,000 or 1 in 10,000 who will survive.
03:55If we already have a few tens or hundreds coming out of the nests,
03:59we will never be able to have adults.
04:04It's funny, it's like watching a birth.
04:09It's a pretty special feeling.
04:11I'm very happy with my morning.
04:17We have a hole that has been dug by a dog.
04:19We could see the traces that were there
04:21and here we can see the traces of a dog.
04:24At the beginning of Boira, 14 years ago,
04:26we were more than 30 nests out of 100 attacked by dogs.
04:31For 2-3 years, we have been around 1 or 2 nests attacked by dogs,
04:34so we have drastically decreased.
04:36But we still have some.
04:37And our goal is to get to zero
04:39because losing a nest is losing a hundred,
04:41a little more than a hundred and two.
04:43We also note the traces of cats
04:44because that's a threat that's a little new.
04:47It's because you're going to get rid of the dogs,
04:48so now there are cats.
04:49Exactly.
04:50And when we get rid of the cats, there will be rats.
04:53Today, the threats that weigh on the turtles
04:56are of different orders.
04:58We will have everything that will concern
05:00accidental catches, especially in the fishing nets.
05:02And that's a threat that will concern the turtles,
05:05especially during their migration period
05:08between the feeding area and the breeding area.
05:10The plastic threat is more and more present.
05:13We see that more and more in the dead and autopsied turtles
05:17that have plastic waste in their stomachs.
05:20And so today, with the increase in temperatures
05:23due to climate change,
05:24we are observing a global feminization
05:26of the populations of sea turtles
05:28because all the eggs that are on hot temperatures,
05:32particularly hot, become females.
05:36We're going to go back up to the nursery
05:37to see what it is.
05:41On our nursery, we put this umbrella
05:44which will actually prevent the rays of the sun
05:46from reaching the sand directly
05:49and therefore reduce the temperature on the surface
05:51and below, inside the nests.
05:53With that, we try to have a little more males
05:55and keep the male-female ratio
05:59that there is naturally.
06:00Do we realize that there are already some
06:02that have emerged in this nursery?
06:03Yes.
06:04There, we have nine nests in this nursery.
06:07We already have one, two, three emerged.
06:19Here we are at the Boira camp.
06:21This is the living place of the team.
06:23We have been living here for 14 years.
06:26This is where the volunteers are housed.
06:30And then in the camp, we have our nursery
06:32which is made up of 2,000-3,000 trees.
06:37These are trees from dry forests,
06:39endemic seashore trees.
06:42For example, here,
06:44these are colonial pine trees
06:46that are a little less present now
06:48with deforestation,
06:49and so we will replant them.
06:50It allows us to make vegetable barriers
06:52against the light
06:55that could hinder the tortoise mothers
06:57and make them flee
06:58or attract the baby tortoises
07:00when they are on the beach.
07:01Afterwards, the trees,
07:02it also allows, with their roots,
07:04to fix the dunes,
07:05so to keep our beach, our sand.
07:08It will also bring a little shade to the beach
07:11and humidity.
07:12We were talking about the feminization of the population.
07:14With that, we will try to reduce the temperature
07:16on the beach.
07:17So the trees,
07:18it's really completely connected to the tortoise
07:20and that's why Boira works on the tortoises
07:23and on the trees with this beautiful nursery.
07:30At the beginning,
07:31we must have a hundred nests,
07:33100, 150 nests
07:34on the area in one season.
07:36This year, we have more than 300 nests.
07:38So it has increased a lot.
07:40It's been 4 or 5 years
07:41that we see that we have good numbers.
07:44The little tortoise we saw earlier,
07:46she joined the sea,
07:48she will go outside the lagoon
07:50and then she will find currents,
07:52sea currents
07:53that go around the South Pacific.
07:55And there, she will let herself be carried
07:57for 10 to 15 years in these currents.
07:59And then she will settle on her site
08:01that we will call feeding
08:02where she will stay for 10 to 15 years.
08:05We will call it feeding
08:07where she will stay to live
08:09and she will stay to live on this place
08:11before coming back to the beach
08:13where she was born,
08:14our beach,
08:15in 20 or 30 years.