Witness King Tides

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ENDANGERED sea turtles nesting at Mon Repos near Bundaberg have survived relatively unscathed from Cyclone Fina's rough seas and big tides.

But scientists hope that big tides today and tomorrow will not further damage the critically important nesting beach.

Last year about 50 clutches  or 12,000 eggs  were lost to dune erosion.

Environment Department chief scientist Col Limpus said yesterday nesting sea turtle numbers were down on last year but this was to be expected because they tended to lay every other year rather than annually.

Last year the rookery recorded its best nesting season in 32 years.

"They are still coming ashore but it is going to be less than last year,'' Dr Limpus said.

"It was a record last year and you don't get two consecutive years like that,'' he said.

"When you get big numbers one year, you'll get a big drop the year after.''

Dr Limpus said he was still trying to understand why last year's nesting was so high, given turtles started to prepare for breeding through the development of egg yolks more than a year before the act  occurred.

"They only make egg yolks if they put on plenty of weight so something pretty good was going on towards the end of 2009,'' he said.

Residents are asked  to photograph the big  tides and to upload their photographs to Witness King Tides at witness kingtides.org in a project run by conservation group Green Cross Australia and Surf Life Saving Queensland.

Green Cross chief executive Mara Bun said that taking photos of sea levels could reveal what coasts might look like under rising sea levels and help with planning.

"Given that 85 per cent of Queensland's population lives within 50km of the coast, it is vital that we know what to expect in coming years,'' Ms Bun said.

Surf Life Saving Queensland chief operations officer George Hill said that climate change and extreme weather events posed a threat  to life saving clubs and services.