Journeying with turtles

The impact of South Africa’s marine protected areas

Following months of rehabilitation, a rescued baby loggerhead turtle surfaces in its tank at the Two Oceans Aquarium, just days away from its release into the wild, 19 January 2024.

The ocean glints metallic blue under the evening sky. Gulls huddle together as the December light fades, and ghost crabs run lightly over white sand. It’s a peaceful scene for a human. But for baby loggerhead turtles, the KwaZulu-Natal beach is perilous.

For days after hatching, they stayed hidden under the sand, waiting for their shells to harden. Now, they must make a break for the water. They clamber as fast as their flippers can carry them, but they’re easy pickings for gulls, crabs and mongooses.

 The few that make it into the surf must get as far out as quickly as possible. Weighing just 20g, the hatchlings drift with the current. “They’re being attacked by everything bigger than them – which is everything,” says Talitha Noble, a conservation manager at the Two Oceans Foundation. 

Those lucky enough to avoid predators drift for about 1600km down the coast with the warm Agulhas current towards Cape Town. Here, the turtles face a new danger: cold. While some manage to stick to the Agulhas and return to the safety of the warm Indian Ocean, others are ejected into the cool coastal waters of the Cape. In March 2023, one such hatchling, #60 – barnacle-adorned and large-eyed – washed up on De Hoop Beach, cold and in shock. 

“We don’t have nesting grounds in the Western Cape,” Noble explains. “What that means is that any turtles on the [Cape] beaches have arrived at the point where they’re going to die because they aren’t able to control their movements anymore.”  

That’s when Cape Town’s turtle rescue network springs into action. Each year, around a thousand volunteers rescue dozens from the beaches of Cape Town during ‘stranding season’: last year’s intake was 79, including little #60. By December 2023, just before her release, she is unrecognisable: barnacle-free, noticeably bigger and paddling energetically in a tank in the two oceans aquarium. Around her are dozens of other baby turtles, each in their own small tank, and each ready to take on the ocean once more. 

Protected nesting sites

Loggerhead turtles were once critically endangered in South Africa. But the establishment and later expansion of marine protected areas off the KwaZulu Natal coast has seen the population rebound. In the early 1960s, fewer than 250 loggerhead turtles nested annually in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

“From the starting point, our nesting turtles are given a good opportunity, a safe space that’s being monitored and protected and where poaching is much more under control than it is across the border into Mozambique,” Noble says.

But what about when the hatchlings leave the relative safety of the coastal waters for the deep sea? Equipped with an internal type of ‘GPS’ that allows them to sense the strength and inclination of the earth’s magnetic field, turtles migrate up to 10 000 km a year. But, because satellite tags have historically been too heavy for baby turtles to carry, where they go during the first decade of their lives – before returning to nest on the beaches of their birth – remains largely a mystery.

Source: Jack Journal, with data from https://www.marineprotectedareas.org.za/

South Africa’s marine protected areas

The waters off South Africa’s mainland are rich and diverse; the confluence of the warm Agulhas and cool Benguela current creates the conditions for abundant life. Undersea ecosystems are as varied as those on land: in the cold Cape waters, seals weave between golden kelp; in the north-east, vibrant fishes dance among coral reefs. For centuries, these marine ecosystems have supported human communities living along South Africa’s coastline. Now, they’re under threat from pollution, habitat destruction and unsustainable fishing systems. 

Marine protected areas are widely considered one of the most powerful ways to address these challenges and increase resilience to climate change. South Africa has 41 protected areas around its mainland. An expansion in 2019 increased the total area from 0.43% to 5.4% of these waters – better than many places on the planet. Resource extraction in MPAs is either restricted (no-take zones) or controlled (permissible only with permits). 

Led by Steven Kirkman of the Department of Forestries and Fisheries, a group of researchers reviewed the research on the ecological effectiveness of our MPAs. They found that the country’s MPAs now provide some protection to all ecoregions (large geographic areas with similar physical and ecological characteristics) and to 87% of ecosystem types (habitats such as coral reefs). Most of the reviewed studies reported benefits to marine life, such as greater abundance, size or reproductive success. .The few that assessed the impacts on adjacent fisheries recorded healthier fishing populations, underscoring the importance of MPAs to sustainable fishing.

However, the team found that conservation gaps remain in the West Coast, estuaries and the deep sea. Enforcement is lacking, and many MPAs could be improved through expansion or by increasing the size and number of ‘no-take’ zones. They also recommend more research to understand the ecological connectivity of protected areas. Despite room for improvement, “there’s always a sense of relief when [tagged turtles] enter an MPA,” Noble says. 

Community involvement 

Part of the success of iSimangaliso MPA and the turtle monitoring programme is active community involvement. This is not typical of conserved areas; an enduring criticism of South Africa’s MPAs is a lack of community consultation and buy-in. A recent analysis led by Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation’s Judy Mann-Lang found that MPAs declared in 2019, unlike older areas, include some social and economic objectives. These include conserving culturally significant areas, boosting nature-based tourism, and improving commercially important fish stocks.

However, the study found that knowledge of the social and economic effects of MPAs is still lacking. In addition to disadvantaging local communities and small-scale fishers, a failure to consider the needs of local communities alongside ecological goals ultimately undermines conservation efforts.  

Improved communication is another way of drawing attention to MPAs and inspiring people to take action for the ocean. Through its education and conservation efforts, the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation helps to illuminate our vast undersea worlds, and the necessity of conserving them. 

In January 2024, Nobel and her team released the remaining 14 baby loggerheads. These youngsters are fitted with lightweight, solar-powered satellite tags: a first in South Africa. After having rehabilitated and released a thousand loggerhead turtles on faith, the researchers will now find out what becomes of some of the rescues. Since #60 and her peers washed up onto the shore, the ocean has not become any safer. But, with months of good nutrition under their carapaces, they have a chance at survival. And, unbeknown them, a great many humans are rooting for them.

Weighing only 9g, the solar-powered tags are attached to the turtles’ shells with silicone, which can expand as the turtles grow. According to Talitha Noble of the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation, they’re expected to last between 6 and 9 months and do not hinder the animals’ movements.