Find out where Yoshi is now
ANY TIME now, Yoshi the loggerhead turtle will cross paths with a fellow former resident of the Two Oceans Aquarium also released back into the wild.
Pemba the Olive Ridley turtle, a former resident at both the Two Oceans Aquarium and uShaka Marine World, released in March, is heading north past Namibia and the aquarium team expects her path to cross Yoshi’s in the next two weeks or so.
The team said Yoshi was still cruising like the marathon swimmer she is.
She is still on her way back down the coast of Namibia and about 194km north-west of Walvis Bay.
She has travelled more than 6 600km, with a daily average now at 26km/day over 258 days.
Even though her average speed is slowing down a little bit, she is going strong as she tends to swim against the currents and at the moment against a very strong SE wind and she’s still making really good headway.
One of the Two Oceans Aquarium’s most famous and beloved former inhabitants, Yoshi was released in December about 27 nautical miles off Hout Bay. Along with the 183kg Yoshi, 27 rehabilitated hatchling loggerhead turtles were released.
She was fitted with a satellite tag, as researchers hope to track her journey for up to three years.
Yoshi was the size of a dinner plate when she arrived at the aquarium in 1996. She was handed over by a chef on board a fishing vessel in Table Bay harbour and named after the chef, Yoshi.
Since her release, she has logged 1 576 satellite passes and transmitted over 8 000 positions, from Cape Town through Namibia to Angola and back down past Namibia.
At her current pace, she might be back in South African waters by November, the Aquarium team said.