Turtle success for rehabilitation of Yoshi and Pemba
THE Two Oceans Aquarium marked World Turtle Day by sharing the journey of turtles which it officially returned to the ocean after a long stay in rehabilitation.
Among the celebrated turtles is Yoshi, the famous loggerhead turtle released in December 2017 after being rehabilitated since 1997, and Pemba, released off Mabibi in KwaZulu-Natal after a collaborative rehabilitation effort by both the Two Oceans Aquarium and uShaka Seaworld in Durban.
Yoshi has maintained her “just over a marathon per day” pace with an impressive 44km per day.
The aquarium said Yoshi is clearly loving the Southwest Indian Ridge which has many feeding hotspots.
She has just passed the Gazelle Fracture Zone.
She is heading straight towards the Atlantis II Fracture Zone, which was discovered in 1976 by the US research vessel Atlantic II.
She remains in a comfortable 20°C zone with a very slight north current. Yoshi is 1 415km south of Reunion and 2 018km north of Port aux Francaise – also called Desolation Island – which is mostly submerged by the southern Indian Ocean and one of the most isolated places on Earth.
She is still within the worldwide range of loggerhead sea turtles though, with 5 454km to go to get to Australia.
The aquarium’s curator, Maryke Musson, said: “I feel very fortunate that we managed to see Pemba thrive back in the ocean after a very long and tough rehabilitation period.”
Pemba was released on March 8, 2018 and has been tracked for 424 days (14 months) before transmissions stopped on May 6.
Pemba’s tag sent 21 727 messages over this time – quite a bit more than Yoshi’s thus far and hence the battery running down quicker than Yoshi’s.
“However, she managed to travel 16 664km since her release, which was a very impressive 39.3km per day.
“She did not slow down over the last three weeks of transmission, which is another sign that she was strong and healthy. In fact, on her last day of transmission, she moved 37km,” said Two Oceans.
World Turtle Day celebrated yesterday is an annual event that has been taking place since 2000 with the purpose of educating people about steps they can do to protect the habitats of turtle and tortoises.
Musson urged people to say no to plastics.
“Plastic is the number one cause of suffering for turtles in the ocean. They ingest plastic, mistaking it for food, which causes blockages within their digestive systems, eventually leading to death,” said Musson.
She said people should also stop supporting the illegal reptile trade.
“The illegal reptile trade along the road to Sun City causes unnecessary suffering to tortoises.
“These animals are caught in the wild and kept in very poor conditions without food or water. They face days, weeks or months of deprivation waiting for a vehicle to stop and for money to exchange hands.
“Many will die before they are sold. Others will die later from stress. More still will succumb without the necessary skill required for the longterm care of these complex creatures,” Musson said.