Rakahanga Atoll
Rakahanga used the endangered status of turtles to highlight the risk of losing its own language
'Akono te fonu ete reo' (save the turtle and our language).

i) We made a large model turtle for their Constitution Day celebrations held at Rarotonga in August.
ii) The school is our research partner and we have developed a method of 'cyber-education' to keep this exciting community project going.
iii) We regularly clean the beaches ~ a lot of plastic rubbish arrives by sea. Our message to the World is simple:

"We share our Paradise with you ~ You send us your rubbish"
"Please don't"


Rakahanga School had four green turtle nests laid on its beach last
summer. We now have a science project in place so that the students
can monitor any future nesting activity. During their 2-week turtle
course they excavated two nests to see how many eggs had hatched.
Success rate is high: over 95%




Above: perfect nesting beach; below: lagoon-side no good for nesting

We investigated suitable nesting areas & adapted a map

Map courtesy of LINZ. Yellow shows good nesting sites

We also investigated marine habitats: lagoon & reef

 The inner lagoon has good foraging resources

 We saw 10 turtles in 2 hours on the western reef