School holiday fun with NWSFTCP!

July 2024

During the July 2024 school holidays, DBCA’s Nearer to Nature and North West Shelf Flatback Turtle Conservation Program teamed up with AQWA and Bunbury’s Dolphin Discovery Centre to deliver a “Turtle Conservation” program over two days. 

The participants, aged between 8 – 15 years old, explored the exhibits with the NWSFTCP Science Communication and Education Officer Clodagh. They learned about the relationship between each species and marine turtles – for example, the touch pool would be a dream for a flatback turtle who eats a mix of jellyfish, corals and invertebrates like sea sponges! The interactive signs at AQWA’s turtle exhibit, funded by the NWSFTCP, helped the kids understand the threats that turtles face such as climate change, plastic and light pollution, and coastal development. 

There was also an opportunity to meet Squirdle, the latest juvenile loggerhead being rehabilitated at the Dolphin Discovery Centre after being discovered by students during a beach clean-up at Binningup Beach. Squirdle only has three fins and helped the kids understand just how fragile and vulnerable turtles are during their younger years. 

We look forward to running turtle conservation activities again in the next school holidays. Keep an eye out on the Nearer To Nature website for booking information: Nearer to Nature: activities for the community | Explore Parks WA (dbca.wa.gov.au) 

If you are lucky enough to live near or visit a turtle nesting beach, you can help protect marine turtles by avoiding the following from October to April: driving on the beach, lighting campfires, using artificial light or bringing your dog or other pets to the beach. If you find a marine turtle in trouble, please do not approach or handle it and instead call the Wildcare Helpline on 9474 9055.

Photo - DBCA