Marine turtles in Lake Macquarie and Tuggerah Lake
Marine turtles can be found in both Lake Macquarie and Tuggerah Lake, on the NSW Central Coast. The NPWS is collecting information on all turtle sightings in this area. If you've seen a turtle, we'd like to know about it! Fill in an online record card at the bottom of this page.
If you're lucky, you might see the following:
Green turtle
The loggerhead turtle gets its name by having a large head size in proportion to the rest of its body. Loggerheads are found along the NSW coastline.
Loggerhead turtle populations in eastern Australia have severely declined in recent years. This is most likely due to:
- incidental killing by the trawling industry
- foxes, which eat the turtles' eggs.
Threats to marine turtles
These ancient reptiles are diminishing in numbers around the world, mainly due to human impacts. Around the Central Coast, marine turtles are threatened by such things as:
- plastic bags and other waste, which the turtles mistake for jellyfish
- cigarette butts
- fishing line and hooks
- boat and propeller collisions
- entanglement and drowning in nets, ropes, floats or traps
- habitat destruction, poor water quality and seagrass depletion
- deliberate acts of cruelty
- disease.
What you can do to help
It's easy to help protect marine turtles. Here are a few simple things you can do:
- appropriately dispose of your rubbish
- collect litter on or near the waterways
- when boating, travel slowly over seagrass beds
- report people engaging in illegal netting or trapping
- help in coastal health projects (eg. seagrass monitoring)
- join your local animal rescue and care group
- report sick or injured turtles to the NPWS Lake Munmorah office.
Tell us about your marine turtle sightings!
More information
Page last updated: 27 February 2011
