Ruth Wright, Curator of Sea Turtle Rehabilitation at Bayworld Oceanarium (Bayworld PE), recently reflected on an eventful year.
Bayworld received 90 turtles (and counting) this year, with the most recent arrival on Saturday, 14 December. This included 81 loggerhead hatchlings from the bumper stranding season — 42 of which came from the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation — and nine larger turtles: seven greens and two hawksbills.
While some turtles could not be saved, mostly due to plastic ingestion and fungal infections, 69 turtles were successfully released, including 66 loggerhead hatchlings and three larger green turtles. Two of these greens (weighing 8 kg and 22 kg) were acoustically tagged for release. Six turtles were also translocated to the East London Aquarium for ongoing rehabilitation.
One of the year’s biggest challenges was relocating all the turtles to Bayworld’s new temporary holding facility during its redevelopment. The move included not just this year’s arrivals but all long-term residents: two adult loggerheads (Gareth and Stumpi), two subadult loggerheads (Steve and Cuzzin), and one subadult green turtle (Pepper) — a total of 488 kg of turtles! Then, following torrential rains in October that caused a massive flood, all the animals had to be moved back down to the Oceanarium.
2024 has been exciting, to say the least! Here’s to a calm and quiet festive season.
Picture: Supplied