Limpus, 2004:

"Seven widely separated breeding aggregations that are separate stocks and require independent management have been identified for Australia (Bowen et al. 1992; Norman et al. 1994b; Moritz et al. 2002; Dutton et al. 2002): southern Great Barrier Reef, Coral Sea, northern Great Barrier Reef, Gulf of Carpentaria, Ashmore Reefs, Scott Reef and the Northwest Shelf (Figure 3). The turtles nesting in western Arnhem Land have not been identified to a stock. Although they have different breeding distributions, the turtles from the different stocks occupy sympatric feeding areas which they also share with turtles from other breeding units with nesting beaches in neighbouring countries (Limpus et al. 1992). 

Within the southern Great Barrier Reef breeding unit, major breeding concentrations occur on the islands of the Capricorn Bunker Groups of the southern Great Barrier Reef (Bustard, 1972; Limpus et al. 1984; Limpus, 1985): North West, Wreck, Hoskyn, Tryon, Heron, Lady Musgrave, Masthead, Erskine, Fairfax, North Reef, Wilson Islands. Minor breeding aggregations occur at Bushy Island, the Percy Islands, Bell Cay, Lady Elliott Island, the mainland coast from Bustard Head to Bundaberg and the northern part of Fraser Island. Very low density nesting can occur on almost any other beach within this area.

Greater than 90 per cent of all southern Great Barrier Reef C. mydas nesting occurs within the protected habitat of National Parks (Nature Conservation Act 1992, Regulations 1994), including: Capricornia Cays National Park and Capricornia Cays National Park Scientific (Northwest, Tryon, Wilson, Wreck, Heron, Erskine, Masthead, Hoskyn, Faifax, Lady Musgrave Island) (Anon, 1999; Limpus et al. 1984); Great Sandy National Park (Fraser Island); Swain Reefs National Park (Bell Cay); Percy Island National Park (South Percy and Pine Peak Islands); Bushy Island National Park. At Heron Island, approximately 25 per cent of the beach length is outside of the National Park. North Reef is a Commonwealth Lighthouse Reserve.

Adult females migrate from their dispersed foraging areas to traditional breeding areas. Recaptures of females tagged at southern Great Barrier Reef rookeries have been recorded from foraging sites in Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Fiji, Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales (Limpus et al. 1992; Limpus, 1993; Limpus et al. 2003) (Figure 6a). 

Based on tag recoveries, the adult females that breed within the southern Great Barrier Reef are not uniformly distributed among their available foraging areas (Limpus et al. 2003): The majority of the tag recoveries from this stock have occurred along eastern Australia south of 14°S to central New South Wales and from New Caledonia (Figure 8). North of 14°S recaptures from the  southern Great Barrier Reef stock represent only a small proportion of the recaptured turtles from known rookeries (Figure 8).

Immature C. mydas recruit from the pelagic post-hatchling phase to benthic foraging over the eastern Australian continental shelf at about CCL = 40-50cm (Limpus and Limpus, 2003). Immature and adult C. mydas feed in tidal and subtidal habitats including coral and rocky reefs, sea grass meadows and algal turfs on sand and mud flats throughout an area bounded by the eastern Arafura Sea, Gulf of Carpentaria, Torres Strait, Gulf of Papua, Coral Sea, Great Barrier Reef, Hervey Bay, Moreton Bay and NSW coastal waters (Limpus and Reed, 1985a; Limpus et al. 1994a; Speirs, 2002; Unpublished data, EPA Queensland Turtle Conservation Project). Based on tag recoveries of adults, the major part of the southern Great Barrier Reef stock can be assumed to occupy feeding areas to the south of Princess Charlotte Bay to northern New South Wales and in New Caledonia. C. mydas are year round foraging residents to at least as far south as northern New South Wales (Speirs, 2002). Specific site related data are included in the following sections on the basis that a major proportion of the turtles present at the site belong to this stock."

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Citation and/or URL

Limpus, C. J., 2004,  A biological review of Australian marine turtles II. Green turtle Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus),  Unpublished report.  Queensland Environmental Protection Agency.

Spatial Coverage

 Australia, South Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea

Temporal Coverage

 > 30 years

Update Frequency

Not applicable 

Other Information

 None