The Nature Conservancy and local conservation officers launched the first hawksbill sea turtle satellite tagging program in the largest rookery in the South Pacific - the Arnavon Community Marine Conservation Area (ACMCA) in the Solomon Islands.

"While turtle tagging has been done before, a comprehensive hawksbill satellite program has never been done in the Arnavons, which is a crucial breeding ground for this critically endangered species," said Richard Hamilton, Melanesia Program Director, The Nature Conservancy.

"This new data will show whether the current Arnavons boundaries are sufficient to protect nesting turtles, and where they migrate between nesting years."

The Nature Conservancy in mid-April placed satellite tags on 10 hawksbill turtles at the beginning of the peak nesting season to get a solid outline of inter nesting habitat.

The Conservancy used the latest technology, Argos/GPS Fastloc satellite tags, which give very accurate information on where turtles travel and their specific locations when they are at nesting and foraging grounds. Because turtles nest in the Arnavons year-round and nesting areas (or their importance) may change year to year, the Conservancy is also planning to tag 10 more hawksbills per year in 2017 and 2018.

"This new study will help the Conservancy and community partners protect turtles throughout their lifespans, and offers hope as World Sea Turtle Day is celebrated on June 16th," said Hamilton.

Like many other sea turtle species, hawksbills are critically endangered. Worldwide populations have declined about 80 percent in the past three turtle generations due to the illegal turtle shell trade, egg collection, harvesting for meat, bycatch in tuna fisheries, and habitat loss from beach development and climate change.

With assistance from The Nature Conservancy in 1995, the Solomon Islands government and the communities of Kia, Katupika and Wagina established the ACMCA - the largest and first community-managed marine protected area in the country.

As of 2012, an estimated 400-600 hawksbills nest here annually. The hawksbills nest only once every seven years, on average, so the total Arnavons nesting population is 2,000-4,000 turtles.

Those numbers are a fraction of the tens of thousands of turtles that nested here before the shell trade nearly eliminated the species entirely, yet it's still an encouraging trend. Data shows the number of nests on the Arnavons has more than doubled since the protected area was established.

"You can't exclude people from the nature equation," said Hamilton. "In the Solomon Islands, people are dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods and on top of that have traditional ownership of those resources, so involving communities in the conservation process is paramount and has led to increased turtle numbers."

However, protecting the Arnavons is not enough. Females in this population nest once every seven years on average, spending just a few months in the protected area before returning to their distant foraging grounds. Once out of the Arnavons the females are on their own - and scientists not entirely sure where they go. This tagging program will help answer that.

Using GPS fixes from the trackers, The Nature Conservancy's scientists will map and analyze the turtles' movements to get a better picture of their nesting, migration and feeding behaviors.

The data will also help determine if the existing ACMCA boundaries are sufficient to protect hawksbills while nesting. After about a year, the adhesive will disintegrate, allowing the trackers to fall off.

Sadly, two of the tagged turtles were poached shortly after their tags were installed - a sobering reminder of the dangers that sea turtles face every day.

The Conservancy is using this incident to continue discussions with local communities about turtle conservation and the value of protecting turtles. It also shows there is an obvious need for more support for patrols to help enforcement.

New and comprehensive information is coming in daily that can be viewed on our live tracking map.