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Former student project highlight - Jenna Hounslow
Flatback turtles spend much of their lives underwater, diving for extended periods of time and briefly coming to the surface for air. Biologging technology (animal-borne tags) is now advanced enough that high-resolution sub-second data from multiple sensors can be collected simultaneously.
Former PhD student Jenna Hounslow worked with the North West Shelf Flatback Turtle Conservation Program and Murdoch University’s Harry Butler Institute to develop an analytical method that could be used to interpret complex diving behaviour from such data, collected from flatback turtles at Yawuru Nagulagun Roebuck Bay Marine Park with the help of DBCA/Yawuru Marine Park Rangers and Nyamba Buru Yawuru Country Managers. The result was a detailed interpretation of diving behaviour during the poorly understood foraging life-history stage of flatback turtles.
This research was conducted in collaboration with Simon Fraser University and Curtin University and was supported by the Ecological Society of Australia's Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment.
Click here to read more about this researchCurrent student research projects
The North West Shelf Flatback Turtle Conservation Program is currently supervising the following student projects in collaboration with university, joint management and industry partners:
- Rosie Brown - Murdoch University
Rosie is exploring the environmental drivers of diet, nutritional status and habitat use of the foraging population of flatback turtles at Yawuru Nagulagun Roebuck Bay.
Her research is a collaboration between the NWSFTCP, Murdoch University’s PEAC Lab within the Harry Butler Institute, Nyamba Buru Yawuru Country Managers and James Cook University. Rosie’s PhD is also supported by a Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment, granted by the Ecological Society of Australia.
Photo - DBCA
Click here to read more about Rosie's PhD
Applying for research opportunities
Research opportunities will be displayed on this page when they become available. To apply for a research opportunity, please send your CV and a cover letter to turtleresearch@dbca.wa.gov.au .