As of July 6, 2024, the Two Oceans Aquarium Turtle Centre took in its 600th rescued hatchling, Showing just how rough seas have been this winter.
South Africa (16 July 2024) – When the 2024 Hatchling Stranding season started, nobody could have imagined that 600 turtles would end up at the Two Oceans Aquarium Hatchling Centre, but with weather conditions, more turtles showed up each day.
During the storms in April, the Turtle Rescue Network collected the hatchlings and delivered them to the care team. At first, the numbers were around 80, but then they quickly shot up to over 240. With winter in full swing and angrier storms brewing, the current count stands at over 600. Turtle 600 was rescued on July 6, 2024.
“Our Turtle Conservation Centre has received our 600th turtle hatchling, rescued in Simonstown on 6 July. After spending some time in the warmth of our oxygen box, little #600 is proving to be quite a fighter! đź’Ş
The 2024 stranding season has seen unprecedented numbers of stranded hatchlings, and we need all the help we can get to care for these little patients. You can help us give these animals a brighter future by adopting a turtle – whether co-adoption or supporting a turtle’s full rehabilitation, you could positively impact the survival of an endangered species! 💙🩵
If you’d like to adopt a hatchling, please email turtlerescue@aquariumfoundation.org.za”
Hatchling Season
The Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation started preparing for Turtle Hatchling Season back in January, and the first rescues will most likely arrive very soon.
So many of these hatchlings wash up on the Western Cape coastlines because when they are born on the Northern Beaches in KwaZulu-Natal, they make their way into the ocean and towards the warm Agulhas current.
If a hatchling is lucky, it will be carried by the Agulhas Current as it turns east off the coast of the Western Cape and out into the warm Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, this isn’t easy for the tiny hatchlings, and many of them are ejected from the Agulhas Current into the cold water of the Atlantic. This water is too cold for these hatchlings to survive. They get gradually weaker and weaker as they try to return to the Agulhas – an effort that is made increasingly difficult in bad weather, barnacles taking over the little body or if the turtle has been harmed by ingesting plastic pollution.
These weakened hatchlings inevitably wash up on the Western Cape’s coast, and without human intervention, they have no chance of surviving. We have a responsibility to help these animals.
The hatchlings that wash up in the Western Cape are all taken to the Two Oceans Aquarium. Once they have been rehabilitated and are healthy enough, they are released back into the ocean.
If you want to help the team, you can do so here.
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