53 of data generated. Based on a six seasons time-series data collection, we have achieved the two main objectives that were initially set: (1) establish a monitoring protocol well-adapted to the study area, allowing to deliver a baseline knowledge meeting the minimum threshold for data quality (SWOT Scientific Advisory Board 2011), while optimizing the resources required for its implementation ; (2) produce the first estimates of the annual nesting intensity at the ‘GLS’ rookery-scale allowing to evaluate the status of this area in relation to the South Pacific loggerhead turtle population. 3. Materials and methods 3.1 Study area Censuses were conducted in the ‘Grand Lagon Sud’ (S22°00, E167°00) of New Caledonia, a 314.500 ha marine protected park in the southern end of the mainland’s coral lagoon (Figure 15). Its inscription as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2008 testifies to the exceptional nature of the area and its ecological interest. This region is characterized by a rich coral reef diversity, extensive seagrass and algal communities, a fractioned reef barrier, and 35 distinct coral reef islets distributed over the park. The surveyed area requires the use of a motorboat to conduct field missions because of the large geographic scope to cover, with 32 km from Nouméa city harbor to reach the first monitored islet, and 88 km to reach the most distant islet. All islets present fringing reefs and are difficult to access by low tide and/or poor weather conditions, leading to major planning constraints. Given the distance to the eastern part of the park (128 km from the departing harbor to the most eastern islet), the choice was made not to include the 7 islets surrounding the Isle of Pines (Figure 15) to the study area. The remaining 28 coral islets of the area were annually monitored over the 2017-18 to 2022-23 period, for a total of n=6 nesting seasons covered (Tableau 3). The islets are stable at the scale of this study. 3.2. Monitoring protocol 3.2.1 Nesting data count type Seasonal survey events were conducted during austral summer in the ‘GLS’ area to match the reproductive phenology of the loggerhead turtle in New Caledonia (Barbier et al. 2023). They consisted in a series of 1 to 2 days missions at sea, in which a set of islets were monitored by a minimum of two persons in order to reduce observer bias. All nesting activities observed on
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