Born Free

Category: Sea Sense | Date: Sep 08 2008 | By: bornfree

Last week we went to Mafia Island, just south of Zanzibar, to check the progress of conservation activities along with tourism affairs. We (me – John Mbugani, together with two field officers and two University students) stopped first on Juani Island (which means island of the sun in the local language), a satellite island that sits on the east side of Mafia. This is probably the most important turtle nesting site in the whole of Tanzania. On just a few small sandy coves, we have already protected a record 136 turtle nests this year, of which 85% have already hatched with thousands of babies making their spectacular way to the sea.

One threat facing green and hawksbill turtles on Juani is predation by monitor lizards. We saw a nest that, moments before we arrived, had been predated by a monitor lizard. 25 hatchlings died as a result.

Another threat is beach litter which acts as a barrier to nesting turtles. We came across huge piles of litter brought by ocean currents far away from Mafia washed up on the eastern side of island. These have been blocking the beaches making it difficult for nesting females to access suitable sites for depositing their eggs and for babies to get to the sea. Many tourists have been put off by the rubbish discouraging them from donating to the project.

While there, we also visited Juani Primary School which has received support from the Born Free Foundation for some years now. Funds have been used to repair classrooms and to construct a new water tank which is on-going. Now the kids and teachers are enjoying an inspiring studying environment and soon they will get fresh water.

More from Mafia soon!

Tags: Sea Sense, Tanzania, turtles