Noël’s Heading Home for Christmas, One Year After Rescue

Photo Credit: Dolphin Coast Residents & Ratepayers Association & SAAMBR

Noël has her second Christmas miracle – a year after being rescued from Christmas Bay, she’s healthy and heading back home to the ocean.

KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (14 November 2025) – A year ago, just a week before Christmas, a badly injured green turtle washed up on the rocks at Ballito’s Christmas Bay.

Residents jumped to rescue her. They tried returning her to the water, not realising she was stranded because she couldn’t cope in the surf. The community caught on that something was wrong and got Noël safely to the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR) Sea Turtle Hospital at uShaka Sea World.

There it was confirmed that she was battling buoyancy issues, shell damage and lung problems that left her floating on the surface and unable to feed. Thankfully, she was in the best hands and for the next year, recovered under gentle care.

Now Noël gets her second Christmas miracle. She’s finally strong enough to go home.

“She’s a very active sea turtle, and a strict (and fussy) vegetarian, refusing to eat anything other than algae, so we had to carefully manage her activity levels to help her gain weight. Noël is highly responsive and always appreciates a good old back scratch, and we are confident that she will thrive back in the ocean, where she will have access to a diversity of sea plants to graze on throughout the day,” shares SAAMBR Aquarist, Timothy Smith.

She will be released near Port Shepstone, the same safe stretch of ocean where SAAMBR recently released Andy, a male green turtle who has been thriving there ever since. Andy is carrying a satellite tag from the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation, and his thriving has proved to researchers that he’s in the turtle sweet spot.

“Since his release near the uMzimkhulu Estuary, he has mostly remained in the area, confirming that it is the perfect ‘home’ and feeding ground for grazing green turtles. We hope Andy will show Noël the best algae spots, of course!,” shares SAAMBR.

Noël will join him soon, this time carrying her own acoustic tag, allowing researchers to monitor her long-term movements through the Acoustic Tagging Array Platform. Andy will continue sending satellite updates, and together they will help paint a clearer picture of how green turtles are cruising the coast.

Her aptly timed release is only possible because of a coast-wide network of people who refused to give up on her.

“Once again, these rescues and releases were made possible thanks to an incredible collaborative effort by the public, the KZN Stranding Network, the NSRI, and the sea turtle network along the South African coast. We know that these two vegetarians will thrive in the lush sea gardens of the South Coast,” shares SAAMBR.