{"id":3967,"date":"2026-10-23T07:25:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T06:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/entrecasteaux-up-to-400-green-turtle-nests-in-a-single-night-reveal-a-refuge-under-climate-pressure\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T07:25:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T06:25:03","slug":"entrecasteaux-up-to-400-green-turtle-nests-in-a-single-night-reveal-a-refuge-under-climate-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/entrecasteaux-up-to-400-green-turtle-nests-in-a-single-night-reveal-a-refuge-under-climate-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrecasteaux: Up to 400 Green Turtle Nests in a Single Night Reveal a Refuge Under Climate Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entrecasteaux, more than two days’ voyage from Noum\u00e9a, hosts an exceptional reproduction of green turtles. Access is forbidden to protect these isolated beaches, but the climate is now altering their incubation conditions. Research initiated since 2025 aims to measure this risk before it transforms this refuge.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Entrecasteaux protects isolated beaches where green turtle nesting reaches a rare scale<\/h2>\n

The Entrecasteaux atolls lie north of Grande Terre, far from inhabited areas. UNESCO listed this ensemble as a World Heritage Site in 2008, and protection has progressed further since. Since January 1, 2024, regulation places the entire area in full reserve<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Lire aussi<\/span> L\u2019Ukraine met \u00e0 l\u2019abri 773 \u00e9chantillons de semences au Svalbard, son premier d\u00e9p\u00f4t depuis l\u2019invasion russe de 2022<\/span><\/section>\n

Huon, Surprise, Fabre et Le Leizour accueillent les principales plages de ponte<\/strong> de l\u2019archipel. Le Parc naturel de la mer de Corail estime qu\u2019environ 47 000 femelles<\/strong> viennent pondre chaque ann\u00e9e. Cependant, une trace ne correspond pas toujours \u00e0 une tortue diff\u00e9rente.<\/p>\n

At Huon, nesting nights can approach 400 nestings without representing 400 different turtles<\/h2>\n

Between November and February, the Huon beach changes its appearance from the tracks left during the night. Scientists count about 200 nocturnal nestings<\/strong>, with peaks near 400. In parallel, the WWF notes up to 600 nestings during the seasonal peak.<\/p>\n

Those figures, however, describe different phenomena. A mont\u00e9e sur la plage<\/strong> can end without a nest if the female abandons her site. Furthermore, the same turtle may return to nest roughly two weeks later during the season.<\/p>\n

Lire aussi<\/span> Le b\u0153uf est un m\u00e2le castr\u00e9 et le taureau un reproducteur, mais la viande dite de b\u0153uf vient surtout de vaches en France<\/span><\/section>\n

The long runs of fieldwork have revealed the site\u2019s real scale. Between 1988 and 2021, teams accumulated 1,456 counting nights at Entrecasteaux. Depending on the seasons, researchers estimate between 5,513 and 103,511 nesting activities<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Megafauna program measures nest warmth and the rapid evolution of Entrecasteaux beaches<\/h2>\n

Since 2025, the Megafauna<\/strong> program tracks turtles across two successive breeding seasons. Teams count the tracks, monitor the emergences, and retrieve the thermometers they buried in the nests. Thus, these data should clarify reproductive success and the male-to-female ratio.<\/p>\n

Temperature plays a direct role during egg incubation. Warmer nests favor females, while cooler temperatures favor males. Moreover, excessive heat can kill embryos and reduce the hatching success<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Lire aussi<\/span> Le martin-p\u00eacheur gagne les eaux libres quand l\u2019hiver arrive, et son bec a m\u00eame redessin\u00e9 un train \u00e0 grande vitesse<\/span><\/section>\n

Researchers also monitor the shape of islets with drones. In 2026, they used a first-time LiDAR<\/strong> to map the relief precisely. Thus, they measure erosion, accretion, and areas threatened by submersion.<\/p>\n

The turtles depart Entrecasteaux on journeys over 1,000 kilometers, greatly widening the protection challenge<\/h2>\n

The reserve protects reproduction, but not the entire life cycle. After nesting, some females reach Australia, Papua New Guinea, or other New Caledonian sectors. These migrations sometimes exceed 1,000 kilometers<\/strong> and connect several zones of the Coral Sea.<\/p>\n

The green turtle has been listed since October 2025 as Near Threatened<\/strong> on the IUCN Red List. Its global population has increased by about 28% since the 1970s. However, Entrecasteaux remains exposed to warming, erosion, and rapid transformations of its beaches.<\/p>\n

Lire aussi<\/span> En 1994, les Irwin ont plant\u00e9 44 000 eucalyptus pour les koalas, un pari devenu un vaste r\u00e9seau de r\u00e9serves australien<\/span><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[590,2551,1616,1603,978,2554,2553,412,1997,2552],"class_list":["post-3967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-climate","tag-entrecasteaux","tag-green","tag-nests","tag-night","tag-pressure","tag-refuge","tag-reveal","tag-single","tag-turtle","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3969,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967\/revisions\/3969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}