Help Cable Beach turtles survive – send a quick submission in support of a longer beach-safety period

Flatback Turtles only nest on northern Australian beaches and are listed as a threatened species. Only 1 in 1000 hatchlings survive to adulthood.

The Cable Beach turtles face threats such as animals digging up nests and eating the eggs and young - but in addition they also face the threat of vehicles being driven over nests, and tyre-ruts blocking access to the ocean for hatchlings.

You can help here in less than a minute of your time, by submitting a quick submission, before 4pm Friday 30 August 2024, stating your support for extending the vehicle ramp closure through February.

Hatchlings get trapped in tyre-ruts on the beach and fail to make it from the nest to the sea.

If we want the Flatback turtle population to survive, then we need to do all we can to help them, including keeping vehicles off the beach during nesting and hatching times.

A happier hatchling. Photo: Allysha Cartledge.

Instructions:

• Click this link, it will take you to the Shire of Broome's webpage.
• Scroll down.
• Fill in your name and post code (make sure there is not a space at the start of your postcode).
• Fill in your email.
• Select "YES" to the question: "Do you support extending the vehicle ramp closure through February?"
• Add a comment if you wish (optional).
• Click the box next to the words "I'm not a robot".
• Click "Submit".
• Note: If at this point you don't receive a "Submission complete" message and a receipt number for your submission, try scrolling back up to see if it specifies where an error may have occurred, then fix the error.

Environs Kimberley recommends that Cable Beach be closed to vehicles during the whole nesting and hatching season from October to April. On the table right now is a step towards that - the option to expand vehicle restrictions into the month of February.

Flatback Turtle - threatened species. Photo: Dave and Fiona Harvey

If you would like to provide optional comments, here are some points you could include:

• Flatback turtles are a threatened species
• The Flatbacks at Cable Beach hatched there, and feed in Roebuck Bay
• We have a great opportunity to provide more protection by keeping cars off the beach during nesting and hatching times
• There should be a ban on vehicles during nesting and hatching time, from October to April – including all of February
• According to the Shire of Broome’s website, data from Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions compiled from six years of its turtle monitoring program at Cable Beach showed that: “on average, 20 per cent of turtle nests hatch in February and that Cable Beach turtles only nest at Cable Beach. The Council accepted this compiled data as valid scientific evidence to justify extending ramp closures through February until March 1 to protect the unhatched turtle nests after January.”
• Also according to the Shire of Broome’s website, “… the Yawuru Parks Council has requested that the Shire of Broome consider extending the existing December and January closures to include all of February to ensure that the 20 per cent of nests that remain unhatched in February remain protected from vehicles and ruts caused by vehicle tyres.”
• The Shire takes serious reputational risks if it supports vehicles on the beach rather than a threatened species.