Cape Town – The loggerhead turtle named Pan was successfully released back into the ocean on Saturday, about 30 nautical miles south of Hout Bay, the Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation confirmed.
The foundation, uShaka Sea World and Bayworld with assistance from East London Aquarium have been working on a simultaneous release plan for three rehabilitated juvenile loggerhead turtles – Pan, Donny and Caddy.
Due to adverse weather conditions, the Cape Town release of Pan had been postponed for a couple of days, but the release of Donny and Caddy in Durban and East London went ahead on Thursday.
All three juvenile loggerhead turtles were stranded and rescued from Struisbaai in the Overberg region via the Turtle Rescue Network between 2019 and 2020. They were all admitted to the turtle rehabilitation facility at the Two Oceans Aquarium.
The turtles have all undergone various veterinary assessments and were given the green light for release.
Each turtle has been fitted with a satellite tag for its movements to be tracked by researchers.
“This is the first national collaborative release co-ordinated between the three facilities. The aim of this release is to provide significant scientific research opportunities and gather data around the life stages of sea turtles.
“The release will provide a unique opportunity to gain insight into the ‘lost years’ life history stage of loggerhead turtles that has been historically understudied. It will also be an opportunity to investigate the impact of release site on the movements of turtles, post release,” the institutions said in a joint statement.
Loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles annually nest on the beaches of northern KwaZulu-Natal. After hatching, the tiny loggerhead hatchlings make their way into the ocean and into the warm Agulhas Current.
From this point, unless they strand on beaches, little is known about their whereabouts and their behaviour until such time as the adult females return to shore to nest and lay their eggs.
Loggerhead turtles reach sexual maturity between the ages of 25 and 35 years, with estimates that only one or two in every thousand hatchlings survive to adulthood. While the females return to the beaches to lay their eggs, male loggerhead turtles spend their entire lives at sea, never returning to land.
The Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation runs an Adopt-a-Hatchling campaign every year as the care of each hatchling is approximately R8 000 per turtle.
By adopting a turtle, individuals can contribute towards daily care, food, medicine, blood tests, X-rays and scans, and any other treatments required.
For more information, visit: https://aquariumfoundation.org.za/shop/adopt-a-hatchling/
Cape Times