Flatbacks are unique among the seven sea turtles species known to man. But why are they so unique? And how? Let’s take a closer look.

Unlike any other sea turtle species, their carapaces are “squashed”, the margins “flared”, and they are covered with a lighter layer of scutes,

making them more susceptible to injury. Therefore, these turtles rarely nest on coral beaches, preferring big sandy ones that are safer for their delicate carapace. The nesting activity is widely spread on a diverse range of beach types, although many of the largest nesting grounds are on beaches that are often sheltered by inter-tidal zones.

Although Flatback turtles push as far as the waters of Papua New Guinea and southern Indonesia looking for food, they nest only in Australia. Therefore, Flatback turtles have one of the most restricted breeding distributions of all sea turtles, after the Kemp’s Ridley (nesting only in north eastern Mexico and in Texas, U.S.A). There are still a lot of segments of the north western Australia coastline to monitor, but major nesting grounds have been confirmed recently: the east coast of Barrow Island has 1,700 nesting females per year, Mundabullangana Beach on the mainland coast has 1,600 nesting females per year, Eighty Mile Beach has hundreds to thousands of nesting females per year, and Cape Dommett has hundreds to thousands of nesting females per year. Although Flatback turtles develop as a medium sized adult (90 cm), they lay eggs that are very big in size, almost as big as the ones laid by the Leatherback.

Unlike any other sea turtle species, Flatbacks nest in daylights and in beaches where the waters do not have any major currents that would help hatchlings reach the open sea, as happens with other species. Studies carried out during the 80s found that Flatback turtle hatchlings do not go through the typical

offshore phase like all other sea turtles hatchlings and, instead, roam the inshore waters. This may have forced Flatback hatchlings to develop a swimming behaviour that differs totally from other species that rely on currents to gain the open-ocean habitats. Flatback hatchlings swim constantly during the 24 hours after reaching the shore, and then they gradually change their swimming pattern, mostly diurnal. They dive frequently and they tend to spend more time under water at older age. A study initiated between 2000 and 2002 found that adult Flatback turtles dive frequently to the ocean floor and that they spent 57 percent of their time underwater, on the sea floor. These dives were usually quite long (up to 98 minutes), which is unusually long for adult sea turtles, and showed an inactive pattern. Usually, inactive dives to the sea floor made by Loggerhead turtles last only 30 minutes, and very seldom they exceed an hour. The answers to this ability to prolong their dives so much might be in their blood. Generally speaking, air-breathing, diving creatures use the oxygen in their lung first and then, once this is consumed, they start using the oxygen stored in their blood and muscles. The blood of Flatback turtles has the highest capacity of storing oxygen amongst all diving reptiles. So, because Flatback turtles are mainly found in waters as deep as 45 meters, their respiratory physiology may be very well suited to sustaining prolonged dives in shallow habitats.

Researchers think that those traits could explain the Flatback’s ability to survive the stress of forced submergence in trawl nets better than Loggerheads.

An increase to knowledge on Flatbacks and to the related conservation programs has also been made possible thanks to the close cooperation between researchers, government and indigenous people. They have known Flatbacks for thousand of years, and many nesting grounds are located on the lands of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people and their participation in monitoring procedures has brought new understanding of Flatbacks’ behaviour. If you want to know more about the wonderful Australian Flatback sea turtle you can visit http://seaturtlestatus.org/ at the section Reports. Source: The Flatback – Australia’s own sea turtle - Pictures: thanks to C. Schauble and Dr. K. Pendoley

GET INVOLVED!
Your help so far has been amazing and we thank you very much for it. Here are a few things you can do to get involved in the project:

1. •Report any turtle sighting online.
   

2. •Report any big animal sighting online.
   

3. •Submit any picture or video of sea turtles via email. We will use these to identify individuals and we will give you credit for your pictures or videos.
   

4. •Send us your comments, feedback and suggestions on how to improve our project.
   

5. •Donate to the RSTP. Your donation will help us in continuing our activity.
   

6. •Enroll in the Sea Turtle Awareness Specialty. It’s easy and everyone can do it!