Ocean explorer Yoshi swimming south

YOSHI, the loggerhead turtle that’s been exploring the ocean for the past year, appears to be heading back towards the southern tip of Africa.

Two Oceans Aquarium spokesperson Renée Leeuwner said Yoshi was in 19°C water, and the closest loggerhead nesting sites were about 3 500 kilometres from Yoshi’s current location, on the KwaZulu-Natal northern coast.

Loggerhead females nest on or near the beaches from where they hatched, and Leeuwner said they hoped Yoshi would show them where she started out her life.

Yoshi was the size of a dinner plate when she first arrived at the aquarium on a fishing boat in 1997.

She arrived with a distinctive injury on the side of her shell, and the captain of the fishing vessel had named her Yoshitaro, after the cook on board, who was small in stature himself.

The captain had contacted the Two Oceans Aquarium and asked for help.

“On December 16, 2017, a satellite tagged Yoshi and together with 26 rehabilitated loggerhead turtle hatchlings she was released about 30 nautical miles off Cape Point into the warm currents of the open ocean.

“We expected her to head east – but she had different plans. She decided to explore the ocean and has done just that for the last 12 months. She has travelled 8 600 kilometres since her release and has crossed borders 4 times, passing Namibia and Angola, after which she turned around in June and is currently about 680km west of Hondeklipbaai on the South African west coast.

“She has kept a steady pace of 24km a day since her release, and she still prefers swimming against the currents and wind – all that training certainly paid off. She has managed to navigate her way around rich fishing grounds and has thankfully stayed free of ghost fishing gear, one of the biggest threats to sea turtles. She has found some great feeding grounds for herself along the coastline but also far out offshore, around some very productive seamounts,” Leeuwner said.