This year's nesting season at a small, sandy beach in Western Australia's Pilbara region has seen the most mother turtles on record, according to a local monitoring program.
West Pilbara Turtle Program coordinator Sarah McDonald said the record result coincided with growing interest in volunteering for track monitoring.
The monitoring occurs on sandy beaches near Wickham and Cleaverville, including Bells Beach near Rio Tinto's Cape Lambert Port Operations in the state's north-west.
This summer, it seemed Bells Beach was the place to be for nesting flatback turtles.
Ms McDonald said can take individuals up to 20 years to reach breeding maturity. She said while the team was still sorting out its preliminary data, it was a "great" nesting season.
"[It's] the highest we've had on record and so naturally you get more hatchlings when there's more nesting."
The program is a partnership between Rio Tinto and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
Reasons for record unclear
Ms McDonald said while it was difficult to determine what exactly caused this year's influx of turtles, there were several possibilities.
"Turtles are interesting creatures and there's so much we don't know … it could be to do with their food sources," she said.
Flatback turtles, the most common turtle species found at Bells Beach, do not nest every season, which Ms McDonald said could also have contributed to the record number of nests.
"They only come back every two, maybe five seasons, so it might just be that last season they had quite a low nesting season and this year, they were already to nest again," she said.
"It could be to do with just natural fluctuations in nesting, but it is an area that needs a lot more study."
Ms McDonald said this season also saw some success for hatchlings, which could be attributed to the absence of major weather events this summer.
"[Cyclones] can really impact the hatchlings at the end of the season where they might get trapped in the sand from a hard layer been formed by the rain or they might get inundated by the tide from those big tides that come with cyclones," she said.
"We know we have about just over 80 per cent this year who made it out of the nest, which is pretty good."
Volunteers key part of conservation
Ms McDonald said interest in volunteering for the turtle monitoring was growing around Karratha, Wickham, Roebourne and Dampier.
She said not only were people signing up to volunteer but also passing on the message about the importance of protecting turtles.
"[They're] telling their friends and family not to drive on beaches, at nesting time telling people to keep their dogs away from hatchlings and turtle nests, and just generally doing really good support for turtle conservation and spreading the message to look after these amazing creatures."
