Here on the Fraser Coast, we can see 6 of the 7 sea turtles found on Earth.
The most common sea turtle sightings are the green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles, who live in seagrass meadows, rocky outcrops and coral reefs.
Green and loggerhead turtles can travel hundreds of kilometres to nest on the beaches of the Fraser Coast and K’gari.
Leatherback, olive ridley and flatback sea turtles visit us from time to time as they pass through the area in search of a good feed. The flatback turtle is only found in Australia; but like the olive ridley, the Fraser Coast marks the southern limit of their range, and they are only occasional visitors.
Deep-sea diver
Leatherbacks dive deeper than any other reptile – up to 1.3 km – and can stay underwater for up to 90 minutes.
Unlike other sea turtles, the leatherback’s rubbery shell is made of small, interlocking bones covered by tough leathery skin. This helps their shell to contract and expand as they dive deep and then rise back to the surface.
A thick layer of fat keeps leatherbacks warm as they dive into deep, cooler waters.
Leatherbacks visiting our coast nest on the beaches of countries to our north. Data source: TurtleNet: Turtle Nesting Distribution abundance & Migration. Data provided in partnership by Queensland Government Department of Environment, Science, & Innovation and Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). ArcGIS Online.
Long-distance traveller
Leatherbacks are long-distance travellers: one tagged turtle swam 20,000 km between the USA and Indonesia in less than 2 years.
All sea turtles move between places to feed, nest and breed. Even our Australian-only local, the flatback, moves along the Queensland coast.
The leatherbacks visit our coast in summer to feast on jellyfish that thrive in Queensland’s nutrient-rich ocean before travelling to warmer beaches in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to nest.
Jagging jellyfish
All sea turtles love to eat jellyfish; it’s like chocolate to them! Leatherbacks especially love large, soft jellyfish like lion’s mane and moon jellyfish.
It’s a one-way trip for a jellyfish: sea turtle throats have special backward-facing spines (papillae) that stop slippery jellyfish and other food from escaping.
Those spines can be a fatal trap if plastic rubbish, which looks and smells just like jellyfish, gets stuck in them.
Rare visitor to the coast
Despite living in our oceans almost since the age of dinosaurs, spotting a leatherback on our Fraser Coast is rare.
You won’t see a leatherback off the beach: they feed offshore and it’s been more than 30 years since they nested on Australian beaches. Why? We are not sure.
The last known leatherback to nest on mainland Australia was in 1996 between Agnes Waters and Bundaberg.
UniSC dolphin researcher, Georgina Hume, spotted the leatherback in the photo on a research trip in Hervey Bay.
Our most common visitor
Almost 50,000 green turtles call the Fraser Coast home, ranging from young turtles only 40 cm long to adults longer than 1 metre. Despite their numbers, green turtles are listed as vulnerable in Queensland because of the risks they face from predators, people’s activities and climate change.
Tiger sharks are the only natural predator of sea turtles. Green turtles travel huge distances between feeding grounds (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia & northern Australia) and nesting beaches on the Fraser Coast.
Boaties, go slow for the greens below
We don’t see green turtles when they’re resting or sleeping as they can hold their breath for up to 7 hours.
But when they’re swimming and looking for food, they typically surface for air every few minutes. This puts them at huge risk of being hit by a boat or propellor – many die from these injuries.
Boaties: you can keep turtles safe, especially during nesting in summer:
- stay in deeper water away from seagrass meadows and coral
- slow down in shallow water – follow ‘Go Slow’ zones
- have someone with polarised sunglasses watch for turtles
- install propeller guards to prevent fatal injuries
- report an injured sea turtle immediately.
Saving Sango twice
Imagine carrying 1 kg of muck, mud and broken bone in a deep shell wound! This was the fate of Sango, a female green turtle, after her rescue in 2022. She was likely hit by a boat propeller.
After 3 months of treatment and rescue, Sango was finally released back into the wild.
Just over a year later, Turtles in Trouble Rescue found Sango again, stranded with signs of soft-shell syndrome. After another 3 months of treatment, she was released again. (Photo by TITR)
Green fat, not shells
Green turtles are not named for their shell colour, but because their body fat turns green from eating seagrass and algae.
Green turtles are the lawnmowers of seagrass meadows, keeping the meadows healthy. But seagrass suffers if silt or poor water quality blocks sunlight. This can happen because of runoff and coastal developments.
Poor water quality can also cause soft-shell syndrome in green turtles, but it’s not clear why. UniSC and collaborators are working to find the answers.
A big-headed crab-crusher
Loggerhead sea turtles get their name from their oversized head, which looks a bit like – you guessed it! – a big log.
They have super strong jaws to crush prey such as crabs and clams, and they eat a lot.
Sea turtles take in saltwater and get rid of the salt through glands near their eyes – those aren’t sad tears.
Loggerheads weigh about as much as 3 people, up to 200 kg. They are the second largest of the hard-shelled turtles.
Protect our special visitors
Loggerhead sea turtles are in danger! We’ve lost 80% of loggerheads from eastern Australia since the 1970s.
In Australia, loggerheads are endangered, but the local population is critically endangered. This is the final category before being listed as extinct in the wild.
The nesting loggerheads at Mon Repos to Wreck Rock are threatened by feral pigs and foxes digging up eggs, people disturbing nests, coastal development, and entanglement in fishing gear or shark nets.
Long-distance travellers beware!
Loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings ride the East Australian Current from our coast past New Zealand and then across the Pacific, journeying 20,000+ km.
Then, mysteriously, ‘the lost years’: loggerheads spend 10–16 years around South America before returning to Australia.
We do know that loggerheads are in danger from being caught in South America’s longline fishing set ups. Australian trawlers use turtle exclusion devices which allows turtles to escape. (Photo by Blair Witherington, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Log a loggerhead
Just after New Year’s 2025, it’s sunrise and the tide is out on Sirenia Beach, leaving a turtle stranded. A visitor calls Turtles in Trouble Rescue (TITR).
TITR rush out to discover an underweight loggerhead with a partially healed, amputated front flipper.
TOD, as it was named, was treated to reduce sandy grit compacting its gut and given a high-protein diet to rebuild its strength. TOD was released a month later with a satellite tag that showed it initially stayed near the release spot. (Image: TOD ready for release. Photo by TITR)
True-blue Aussies
Unlike all other sea turtles, flatbacks live exclusively near the tropical beaches of northern Australia. They are rarely seen on the Fraser Coast, mostly nesting north around the islands off Rockhampton.
They stay in shallow coastal waters for their entire lives, whereas other turtles spend years in the open ocean. You can often spot them sunbathing on the surface with a seabird perched on their back.
They are fragile with a thinner and softer shell compared to other turtles.
Biggest beach babies
Flatback turtles lay the largest eggs and produce the largest hatchlings of all sea turtles.
You can recognise their unique, symmetrical nesting tracks on the beach: flatbacks move both front flippers forward at the same time, rather than alternating them like other turtles.
If you are lucky enough to spot a turtle nesting, stay still, be silent and give them space. Stay behind them so they can’t see you. Never disturb turtles with a torch or flash photography.
Rescuing a flatback floater
A ‘floater’, or a sea turtle with floating syndrome, is unable to dive because of gas caused by eating plastic or marine rubbish, or from injury or infection.
In late 2025, a local boatie found a floater off Burrum Heads. Volunteers, who named the turtle Pikelet, think his injuries were caused by a shark attack.
Pikelet underwent treatment and rehab for 56 days before being released at Burrum Heads with about 50 community members wishing him luck for his onward journey. (Image: Pikelet almost ready for release. Photo by Matt Barros)
Fishers, take care!
Sea turtles are particularly vulnerable to the effects of fishing.
They can get entangled in or amputated by fishing lines, trapped and drowned in crab pots, and swallow fishhooks. Discarded fishing gear, such as ghost nets, can also trap and drown turtles.
If you see a turtle when you are fishing, please pull your lines out immediately and move, because turtles learn to return to bait-heavy areas, increasing their risk.
If you find an injured turtle caught in fishing gear, contact Turtles in Trouble Rescue volunteers as soon as possible. Do not cut lines, try to remove any hooks, or lift an injured turtle. (Image: A loggerhead entangled in ghost nets)
Turtle shells shining in the sun
Once abundant in the tropics, there’s thought to be less than 5,000 female adult hawksbill turtles in the Pacific Ocean – a quarter of historical populations.
The hawksbill has a beautiful shell that’s long been exploited for tortoiseshell jewellery. International trade of tortoiseshell is illegal, but trafficking continues to push hawksbill turtles to near-extinction.
Hawksbills are found in the coral reefs of Hervey Bay, but they are more common further north.
Video by © Breannah Mitchell
Picky eaters: soft but not too hot
Hawksbill turtles use their sharp, pointed beak to pick out sponges and soft corals from reefs.
By eating sponges, hawksbills keep coral reefs healthy and diverse, allowing a good balance between coral and sponges.
But with climate change and increasingly hotter oceans, there are fewer sponges for hawksbills to eat and the coral also bleaches and dies.
How hard is a turtle’s shell?
Sea turtle shells are not as unbreakable as you might think. A turtle’s shell is living bone with blood vessels and nerves – like our skull – that grows with the turtle.
A single strike from a boat or jet ski could easily fracture a turtle’s shell, puncturing or crushing its lungs that sit just under the shell.
Most turtles die from boat strikes, but shell injuries can also cause internal bleeding, floating syndrome and infection.
My face tells a story
Just like a human fingerprint, the scales on every sea turtle’s face are unique.
Researchers are now using facial identification technology (like that used for matching human faces to passports) to better identify and track turtles.
Compared to tagging turtles, facial recognition takes less time, is less invasive and costs less. (Photo by Tom Doeppner, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Small, determined sailors
The olive ridley is the most abundant sea turtle in the world, roaming the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It is Australia’s smallest sea turtle.
In Australian waters they are endangered, and you are more likely to see them north of the Fraser Coast where the warmer water suits them best.
Olive ridleys travel thousands of kilometres to nest on the same beach they were born on. In some parts of the world, mothers mass and nest together so that more hatchlings make it safely to sea. (Photo by © Roderick B. Mast-SWOT)
I’ll eat almost anything
Olive ridleys like a varied diet of jellyfish, small crabs, sea squirts, shrimp, fish, and occasionally algae and seaweed.
As they will eat just about anything, they are likely to also snap up rubbish. You can help:
- reduce single-use plastics
- recycle properly
- join beach clean-ups
- avoid products that use plastic microbeads
- divert or reduce chemical run-off when you clean your car or garden.
The north is heating up
As our planet warms, so do our oceans and beaches – and turtle nests are feeling the heat.
Warmer sand slows hatchlings trying to make it to the sea, reduces their fitness, and causes more females than males to be born. Hot sand can even cook turtle eggs before they hatch.
Play your part in reducing and mitigating climate change. Every little bit helps.
Taking action across the globe
International experts are working hard to better understand turtle populations, for example the international Olive Ridley Project.
Research fills the gaps in our knowledge – about populations, habitats, migration patterns and threats. It informs our care, rehabilitation and conservation efforts.
We need people to be conscious of their environment and motivated to protect it. Local communities can bring species back from the brink of extinction. (Image: UniSC research students in action)