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In memory of Dr Anton D Tucker
February 2025
Senior Research Scientist Dr Anton D Tucker (Tony) sadly passed away in February 2025. Tony was a world-renowned researcher, who worked for the North West Shelf Flatback Turtle Conservation Program since 2013. With over 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers and book chapters about freshwater crocodiles, freshwater turtles and marine turtles, Tony leaves an extensive scientific legacy.
Tony’s expertise spanned many ground-breaking concepts. He collaborated on projects that included methods to age long-lived reptiles through skeletochronology (bone growth rings) and the calculation of epigenetic clocks, revolutionary VHF radio and satellite tracking techniques, applications of stable isotope analysis, and determining population genetics and dynamics of several species.
Throughout his career at DBCA, Tony played an integral role in discovering the distribution and density of flatback turtle nesting sites across the Kimberley through the WAMSI Kimberley Turtle Project, which involved many weeks camping at remote beaches “ground truthing” aerial surveys with Traditional Owners. At Eco Beach and Eighty Mile Beach, Tony regularly trained and worked with Traditional Owner rangers during the nesting seasons, carrying out tagging and satellite tracking programs.
Tony’s background in stable isotope analysis was vital to the North West Shelf Flatback Turtle Conservation Program, enabling the team to understand flatback turtle diets without having to catch feeding flatbacks in the wild – a feat that would be eventually accomplished with Tony at the helm in Yawuru Nagulagun Roebuck Bay Marine Park.
Tony was an invaluable mentor to the next generation of researchers, an expert reviewer for over fifty scientific journals, and dedicated member of many professional groups including the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Sea Turtle Specialist Group and International Sea Turtle Society. He was dedicated to sharing knowledge and was on the committee for all Australian Marine Turtle Symposia since 2014. Tony’s discoveries and contributions are globally recognised and have driven positive conservation outcomes for marine and freshwater reptiles across the world.
The North West Shelf Flatback Turtle Conservation Program team, on behalf of the Marine Science Program and greater DBCA, wish to extend their condolences to Nancy FitzSimmons and Tony’s family, friends and colleagues.
