Te Ipukarea Society initiated a Citizen Science Turtle Tracking Programme in 2021 to support the monitoring and conservation of sea turtles in the Cook Islands. The programme encourages residents and visitors to submit photographs of the unique print found on the left side of a turtle’s face. These prints are then processed using I3S (Interactive Individual Identification System) facial recognition software.

This technology helps identify whether an uploaded turtle’s print is a new individual to the database or a previously recorded individual. An Excel spreadsheet managed by Te Ipukarea Society is used to record specific details of each print uploaded. Details recorded include the date of the encounter, turtle ID code, location, species, photographer name, and name of data entry person.

Historical photographs dating as far back as 2013 have been included in the database, with significant contributions from Adventure Cook Islands Graham McDonald and Pacific Divers.

Purpose

As with all sea creatures, turtles serve a vital purpose within the marine environment — they have also become a major tourist attraction in the Cook Islands. Consequently, it is crucial to monitor their movement patterns, identify feeding sites, and track threats such as boat traffic, sand mining, and other human activities that can harm turtles or damage their habitat.

By understanding the collected data, we can advance conservation efforts, develop management plans to protect critical habitats, and safely guide human interaction.

highlights

Training on photo turtle tracking has now been shared with GROW Aitutaki and an awareness session was run in Ma’uke, where signs of turtle nesting has been observed.

As at the end of 2025 around Rarotonga – 99 individual Green Turtles have been spotted between 2013 – 2025, and 20 individual Hawksbill Turtles have been spotted before 2011-2025. Good data on movement between sites around has also been collected.

In Aitutaki 5 individual Green Turtles have been spotted between 2021 – 2025.

Sponsors/funders/partners

Thank you to UNESCO Cook Islands National Commission for their support of this project, and to sea turtle specialist George Balazs.

2025 saw the launch of Te Manu Tai o te Kūki ʻĀirani—our seabird monitoring project that will run for 2 years.

The focus is on updating our understanding of what rarely seen Petrel and Shearwater species are nesting on Rarotonga, Aitu and Mangaia.

These seabirds, known locally on Rarotonga as Koputu, have long been difficult to study due to their natural behaviour of returning to their nests late in the evening, after a long day of fishing at sea.

Purpose

In nature all creatures serve a purpose, and the seabird nutrient cycle is one of the important roles seabirds perform for us. The guano they bring to land provides nutrients for our native mountain flora thus stabilising our watersheds. Rain then washes some of these nutrients back to the surrounding coral reef ecosystem, helping reefs to grow and in turn support healthy homes for reef fish to thrive.

They also support our fishermen to locate schools of fish through their swirling and diving behaviour as flocks forage.

Song meters are being used to record the distinctive calls of these birds coming to land from sea on Rarotonga, Mangaia and Atiu. They will remain in place for a full year to gather seasonal data. This will provide insights into what species are currently nesting on islands and an idea on population sizes.

Ultimately, the project lays a foundation for conservation planning and better protection of these elusive Petrel and Shearwater seabirds.

highlights

Teams on Rarotonga, Atiu and Mangaia have been trained and monitoring equipment is in place.

The monitoring work is going well. On Rarotonga a core group of keen hikers regularly ascend the mountains to maintain equipment, check recordings and keep records.

A highlight for Rarotonga was discovering a burrow for the Tahiti Petrel within the Takuvaine Valley area. This is particularly exciting as it is listed as ‘Near Threatened’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Sponsors/funders/partners

We are grateful for the sponsorship from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.