Dolphin helps save turtles

From here, pipelines transport the gas to a processing plant that sprawls at Ras Laffan City; and another traverses the Gulf all the way to Abu Dhabi.

So what is the fate of the nesting turtles? Help has come from the company owning the gas facilities - Dolphin Energy Ltd., implementer of the Dolphin Gas Project that is designed to produce, process, and supply natural gas from offshore Qatar to the UAE.

Between April and June, turtles come ashore to nest on the beach, laying some 100 - 150 eggs and covering the "egg chambers" with sand to protect them from predators. Over the next 30 days, the female turtle rests and feeds offshore before returning to the beach several more times to nest.

Some 55 - 60 days later the eggs hatch and, attracted by the bright reflection of the water under a full moon, hatchlings make their way down to the water's edge, and swim out to sea. Their world has opened up!

But only a few hatchlings will survive to reach maturity. Most will die, falling prey to, among several hazards, abandoned fishing nets, plastic bags and beach debris.

Dolphin has initiated a programme to monitor and protect turtles along their pipeline "Right-of-Way" (ROW) as it crosses the shoreline at Ras Laffan. This is being done in close cooperation with the Environment Department of Ras Laffan City.

Monitoring is conducted during the night and/or early morning to check for nesting turtles or their tracks on the sand. In cases where a turtle has laid eggs along the beach area where the Dolphin pipeline or associated construction works may impact the nest, this is carefully relocated to a safe habitat.

"Already some 19 nests have been protected and moved to safer sections of Dolphin's beach area," says Steve Sayle, project environmental specialist, Dolphin Energy. The eggs have been kept in a designated turtle nest relocation plot, which is fenced to safeguard the nest against predators.

A "Turtle Nest Relocation Protocol" has been developed by Dolphin with the assistance of Supreme Council for the Environment and Natural Reserves (SCENR) and Dr. Nick Pilcher, an internationally acknowledged turtle expert. Hands-on training was conducted on site before the turtle nesting season using turtle egg replicas - golf balls! The Protocol has since been adopted by the Ras Laffan City Environment Department and will guide future shore operations were turtle nesting may occur.

In consultation with government authorities, Dolphin has cleared all beach debris within 250 metres on either side of the pipeline corridor and implemented an environmental management plan which avoids unnecessary noise generation and lighting of the beach at night.

"After the Dolphin pipeline shoreline crossings are installed, our contractors will reinstate the beach to its original condition," says Sayle. "It can then continue to be used by nesting turtles for generations to come!"