Premium Content
Subscriber only
A volunteer brigade has rescued a 100kg turtle found âlifelessâ and without a flipper on a Mackay beach.
Mackay District Turtle Watch Association member Ali Yates said she was checking nests at Illawong Beach on January 31 when a local alerted her to a 110cm-long animal in distress on the other end. The 100kg turtle rescued from Illawong Beach on January 31. Picture: Ali Yates / Steve Fisher
âWhen I got to (her), her face was in the sand and she was quite lifeless,â Ms Yates said.
âSo I got the sand away from her face to unblock her nostrils and poured some water over her head to wash it all away.
Every year baby turtles on Mackay beaches face being crushed to death inside the egg before they can hatch out of their nests.
Mackay and District Turtle Watch Association member Cass Hayward said cars, quad bikes and motorbikes rode over the beaches and foredunes risking hundreds of hatchlings each turtle nesting season between October and late-March. Driving tracks found at Harbour Beach during turtle nesting season, 2020. Picture: Cass Hayward.
“Four-wheel-driving over dune systems is bad at any time of year and can cause many problems including erosion but during these Spring and Summer months, there is the added risk of destroying turtle nests,” Ms Hayward said.