An endangered turtle, which was tagged and monitored via satellite in Samoa earlier this year, has arrived in Fiji to feed.
The turtle, which has been named Lady Vini, is part of a monitoring project led by the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Programme in coordination with the Marine Research Programme in Hawaii and participating countries, to develop management strategies for the endangered turtles.
A World Wildlife Fund marine officer, Penina Solomona, says in the past seven months, the turtle has travelled from Samoa to American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna and to Fiji.
Ms Solomona says scientists hope that more turtles will arrive in Fiji.
"Turtles by nature are known to nest in one part of the world and then migrate to another part of the world to feed, which is evident in Lady Vini's migration. She nested in Samoa and has travelled all the way across the Pacific to come an feed. The same thing will be replicated in French Polynesia and Tonga and Fiji, where we will be looking for turtles that lay their eggs here and then track their movements to other parts of the Pacific."
Penina Solomona
