Litchi, the turtle, is ready to be released back into the ocean, so the Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation is raising funds for her release.
Cape Town, South Africa (23 September 2021) – The Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation announced this morning that Litchi is ready to be released back into the ocean. Before she can go back, they need to fit her with a tracking device, just like the one that Yoshi wore.
Litchi is a Green Turtle, and she was rescued in De Hoop on the 21st of February 2021. She appeared to be in good health but had a pretty bad infestation of marine leeches. She was quite anaemic but able to recover quite well once the leeches were removed.
Her rehabilitation process was trial and error for a time. She developed bubble butt, which made her swim with her bum out of the water. Her body was also sitting high off the ground, so the team treated her for worms, did a contrast study, examined her poop. Eventually, they just gave her space to have a really good fart!
Now that she is past the worst of it, she can set off on her next journey, the big wide ocean. The team needs to raise R30,000 for a tracker, which they will use to monitor her journey.
“There is still much to learn about sea turtles in the ocean, since they are open ocean travelers. The only time scientists can easily study them is when female sea turtles come to land to lay their eggs, or when sea turtles end up in rehabilitation facilities such as ours. However, through satellite tracking technology, we are able to get some insight into sea turtle migrations and behaviours. Because of this, we would like to tag Litchi, so that we can find out more about her specifically, but also about green sea turtles in general, along the southern African coastline.”
If you would like to support Litchi’s freedom swim, you can do so here.
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