Raine Island - Nature's Cradle on the Edge of the Coral Sea
Satellite Web Cast From Turtle Heaven and Hell
Journal Entry - 12- 9 - 02 Island Time?

Five O'clock comes way too early. Don't even remember going to bed. The days are getting to be too long based on this working model. Working late in to the night and then getting up early is beginning to take its toll as we spend the mid-day hours napping to catch up on lost sleep. Luckily the visibility underwater is poor, brought on when the wind swung to the north. The water is carrying lots of plankton reducing visibility to a mere 10 - 15 meters, which is almost unheard of for this part of the world.

Over on the island, the morning low tide was higher today, the sunrise more dramatic, but because the tide was higher there were fewer turtles waiting with less of the shell visible above the water line. The shoreline, while compelling was nowhere near as dramatic as yesterday when there were hundreds of turtle "boulders" sitting just offshore in ankle deep water.
This morning, we also met up with the leader of the Raine Island Corp. research team. He and a colleague, both parks and wildlife service rangers, escorted us down the central depression where the majority of the birds on the island nest. There are significantly greater numbers of birds here during the winter months than during the summer months. There must be in excess of 100,000 birds on the island, probably three times the number of birds here during winter months. The brown boobies dominate, wheeling and soaring through the sky as we moved across the former guano mining field. The brown and masked boobies nest on the open ground while their cousin the red footed booby nests in the vegetation on the low slopes around the depression. There are also night herons which nest on the crest of the low slopes. These predators feed their young exclusively baby turtles, waiting and watching at the beach for the egg hatchings and then rush in and snatch hatchlings to feed their young.
This evening the tagging team went over to the island and removed a tag from another of the tagged turtles when it returned to the island to nest. This time the data show shows a maximum dive depth of 32 meters. We hope to be able to share the graph with you tomorrow. Only one turtle left. Interestingly, the team came back from the island reporting that the number of turtles on the island for the night has dropped considerably. The wind has picked up and the sea become choppy which may have something to do with the reduced number of turtles present on the island.
Tomorrow will be a new day - nothing planned because of the reduced number of turtles - we'll play it by ear.
Check back tomorrow. Night!
Don't forget you can email us questions at
raineexpedition@netcarrier.com
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Photo Captions:
• Tow frigates.
• Shooting birds.
• Bobby chick.