Rare turtle may be left to rot
A rare 2.3 metre-long turtle that washed ashore in Marlborough’s Pelorus Sound may be left to rot.
Department of Conservation Top of the South acting conservation services director Roy Grose said due to the stormy weather and the long weekend he had been unable to organise a specialised boat to pick up the leatherback turtle from Te Kopi Bay.
If a boat could reach it and take it to Havelock, Massey University would then have to organise transport to Palmerston North, where it would be frozen before undergoing a necropsy, he said.
‘‘There is no guarantee we will pick it up. I am just waiting for a call back from Massey to see if they have worked out something their end, but at this stage we are just trying to determine if we can pick it up . . . it’s quite the challenge.’’
‘‘If we don’t we will tow it to an isolated beach and let nature take its course.’’
The leatherback turtle was spot- ted by Te Kopi Bay resident Mark Pengelly from his boat on Saturday.
He first thought it was a mussel buoy.
‘‘I’ve never seen something this big. We’ve had dolphin wash up before and we get orca come into the area reasonably often, but nothing like this.’’
Leatherbacks are an endangered species, the largest sea turtles and one of the world’s largest reptiles. Adult leatherbacks can weigh between 360 and 450 kilograms, although some have been reported as large as 900kg.
They get their name because, instead of a shell, their backs are covered with a leathery, oily tissue.
Grose hoped they could pick it up and send it to Massey University, but if they could not organise transport they would just take measurements and vital statistics.
He said he was unsure of the population of leatherback turtles in the Marlborough Sounds, but it was quite rare to see one.