Erosion of beach affects nesting of turtles at Gharimara

Erosion of nesting beach has affected the annual mass nesting of Olive Ridley sea turtles at Gahirmatha, the world's largest known rookery of the endangered marine animals.
Though the marine species have arrived en masse at the Nasi-2 nesting ground to lay eggs, their number this year is on the lower side. Since the commencement of mass-nesting on March 16, as many as 51,748 female turtles have crawled to the sandy beach to dig pits and lay eggs, officials said.
The mass nesting was at its peak on March 19 with 28,445 turtles digging pits to lay eggs. Later the number had drastically dropped. For the past four days, no turtle has turned up for mass nesting, Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Forest Division, Bimal Prasanna Acharya said.

Last year as many as 4.13 lakh turtles had turned up at the beach for mass nesting, he said.
"The mass nesting has been a low-key affair so far. However, we are still hopeful of more turtles turning up. The forest department has assigned the turtles experts the task of examining the factors leading the lesser congregation at the nesting ground this year," the DFO said.
It's only the female turtles that virtually invade the nesting beaches in the dead of the night to lay eggs, a phenomenon described as 'arribada'. After egg-laying, the turtles leave the nesting ground to move into deep sea. Hatchlings emerge from these eggs after 45-60 days. It is a rare natural phenomenon where the babies grow without their mother, officials said.

Unfavourable beach conditions is being seen as the main factor for low number of turtles. Marauding sea has eaten up sizable portion of the geographical boundary of the Gahirmatha beach at unmanned Nasi-2 Island.

The beach has undergone drastic depletion to the tune of three hectares in comparison with last year's beach profile. As a result, the truncated shape and size of the sandy nesting ground is posing hurdles for mass-nesting of these species.
In addition, edge of the beach which faces the sea has turned steep and sharp, hindering the turtles. Turtles were sighted climbing up the steep beach to crawl towards the nesting grounds. However, the sea animals returned to sea without laying eggs, said Forest Range Officer, Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, Subrat Patra.

"Unsuitable angle of repose to crawl and climb up of the beach might be distracting the turtles. We are trying to turn the angle of repose on the beach suitable by sand casting," he said.
The nesting ground is being battered by mighty sea waves, causing erosion of the beach, a preferred nesting destination of turtles. Nesting beach area has come down to 9.66 hectares, almost 3 hectares less than that during 2015 mass nesting season. The beach area stood at 12.54 hectares last year, forest officials said.