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