30-05-2025
Tweed wildlife rescuer incubates loggerhead turtle eggs at home
As Tropical Cyclone Alfred bore down on the east coast in early March, wildlife rescuers in northern NSW worked painstakingly to move more than 1,000 endangered loggerhead turtle eggs out of harm's way.
It was a story covered on ABC radio at the time, with the eggs taken to be incubated.
Now the last nest has hatched, the Australian Seabird and Turtle Rescue (ASTR) has revealed a detail it was keeping secret: the eggs were incubated at the home of a staff member.
"I was in an area that I wouldn't get flooded, I was hopeful I wouldn't lose power," assistant general manager Amanda Philp said.
"Other people that may have been able to take them on were in areas where they would have been flooded."
Ms Philp said she had not previously told people about keeping the eggs at home in the Tweed Shire as a safety precaution.
A marine biologist and licensed rescuer, she was given permission by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to incubate the eggs at home because the ASTR base in Ballina was at risk of being isolated and losing power during cyclone-induced flooding.
"The preference is always to leave the eggs in situ [on the beach], that's the best spot for them," NPWS marine team leader Duane March said.
"But if they are at imminent risk of inundation from wash over and that sort of stuff, then then we will step in and take action."
The rescue operation required the team to build makeshift incubators.
"We had six incubators, so two of them were quite large ones, and then there were four additional eskies that we actually had to make because we just didn't have enough to deal with all these eggs," Ms Philp said.
"My whole spare room looked like the beach."
Ms Philp said the eggs required constant monitoring, which she juggled around her full-time work.
"Prior to going to work, I would check the temperatures, ensure there's no turtles emerging and if so, just see where they're at in their progression," she said.
"Then after work, I would again have to check those temperatures.
"We also had data loggers that monitor the temperature throughout the process."
Ms Philp said she sent that information to the NSW TurtleWatch project officer, who could calculate how far along they were.
She said six of the seven nests achieved a successful hatch rate between 75 and 95 per cent, similar to the levels typically seen in nature.
"We are extremely proud of that, considering we moved them in such a critical stage of their development," she said.
The final nest to hatch had a success rate of about 35 per cent, but was inundated by waves before it was removed from the beach.
After hatching, each nest was taken to its original beach for the hatchlings to be released, from Fingal Head down to Lennox Head.
Sea turtles are among the species that will return to their hatching location once matured in order to breed and lay their own eggs.
Ms Philp said if the hatchlings survived, they would return in 20 to 30 years.
"We're definitely seeing changes in nesting patterns in different species of sea turtles in response to different climate conditions," Mr March said.
"In the short term, [the incubation process] meant that we saved these critters, and hopefully in the long term it means that we've got a bit more kind of climate redundancy for them.
"When these little critters come out of those incubators and they get down to the beach and make that swim ... off into the big blue, it's awesome to be part of that."
