Turtle tourism has become a popular year-round activity in Rarotonga, with both government and civil society groups working to ensure it is safer for turtles and people. In a two-part series, Gerald McCormack of the Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust writes about the distinct lifecycle of the Green sea turtle, which has a distinct lifecycle compared to Hawksbill turtles, the two types of ‘resident’ turtles that local turtle tourism is built around.
Recently, Te Ipukarea Society (Cook Islands News, February 22) reported 90 Green and 19 Hawksbills. They highlighted one Green Turtle seen in Avaavaroa Passage since 2021 as “a good example of a ‘residential turtle’ that is quite happy spending its days in Vaimaanga”. The presence of around 90 “residential” Green turtles is a dramatic change from the 1980s and 1990s when such turtles were very rarely seen.
