Celebrating our Hero Volunteers who Protect Turtles
Posted on May 20th, 2025
FBA’s Team Turtle Central Queensland (Team Turtle CQ) volunteer Alice Pakay dedicates hours every day monitoring a 4km stretch of the region’s busiest beach to monitor turtle activity during nesting season.
Alice monitors a beach in the Gladstone region and has recorded 189 tracks and 155 nests on the beach during the 2024-25 season, which is more than double any other beach monitored by Team Turtle CQ volunteers.
She is one of 81 volunteers that make up Team Turtle CQ, a citizen science marine monitoring program where volunteers record marine turtle nesting and hatching activity along the Capricorn and Curtis Coasts.
Alice, who works at Gladstone Hospital as a casual assistant nurse, has volunteered for Team Turtle CQ for the last three turtle seasons.
“I love turtles. I think they are amazing creatures,” she said.
“By volunteering with Team Turtle CQ, I feel I’m making a positive impact on the survival of turtles.”
During turtle season, between October to March, volunteers check beaches for turtle tracks, nests, or signs of disturbance and log findings in the BioCollect app.
Alice starts monitoring the beach around mid-October, which sees mostly flatback turtles, and the occasional green turtle, make their way from water’s edge to nest.
The data Alice collects informs species management efforts as it is shared with the Queensland Turtle Conservation Program.
Alice, who is authorised under a State Government permit to collect hatchling success data, said the season is at its busiest when the hatchlings start to emerge from their nests around December through to March.
“When they start emerging, I am collecting data on the nesting turtles and emerging hatchlings. I could spend three to five hours down the beach each day,” she said.
This National Volunteer Week, held on 19-25 May, we are shining a spotlight on our Team Turtle CQ volunteers on the Capricorn and Curtis Coasts, who recently celebrated the end of the season.
The season closer events presented an opportunity to discuss 2024-25 data, where it was heard volunteers recorded 257 confirmed nests and 202 successfully emerged clutches, including 189 flatback turtles and 13 green turtles, across 18 of the 26 beaches monitored by volunteers.
Team Turtle CQ Project Officer Tonya Wilson thanked the volunteers for doing “such an amazing job”.
“I just want to say a big thank you to all our amazing volunteers who put in a huge effort walking their beaches every day during turtle season to check for activity, whether we see evidence of tracks or we are logging no evidence surveys each day which is just as vitally important to our data,” she said.
“Without our volunteers there would be no data. We would have no idea if we were still getting turtles on our beaches or not. Every log our volunteers do help tell a story of what happens on each beach so we can see what is changing from year to year.
“Only one in 1,000 hatchlings survive to adulthood so if we don’t do everything we can to take care of our marine turtles and the beaches they are nesting in our area now, then we could see a reduction in their numbers in years to come which would be devastating.
“All of our marine turtle species are classified as vulnerable or endangered which is a scary thought for their future. My favourite is the flatback turtle which is what our volunteers mainly see evidence of in this area. Flatback turtles are endemic to Australia which makes them even more special and unique. I love that our volunteers are so passionate in helping make a difference to their future.”
Click here to learn more about the volunteering opportunities at FBA.
