Three young turtles have been released back into the wild from three of South Africa’s coastal provinces; they are already travelling the oceans.
Cape Town, South Africa (20 July 2022) – Three lucky sea turtles rescued and taken to the Two Oceans Aquarium have been rehabilitated and released back into the ocean. The aquarium’s Education Foundation has worked tirelessly this season to save as many turtles as possible. The release of these three means the work they are doing is a success!
Each of the three sea turtles has been satellite tagged and released along the coastlines of three local provinces. The sea turtles were released in Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
The Education Foundation shared the happy update about the three turtles earlier this week.
“Three young sea turtles who have been rehabilitated, satellite tagged and released in three provinces are off on an exciting adventure!
Pan wasted no time at all and headed north staying in a gentle 1km/h surface current. On Day 1 he covered an impressive 57km. On day 2 he continued heading north adding another 38km to his speedy start. He has been in the slightly bigger swell, with a bit of an NW wind pushing from the side. He has also been in a colder water temperature of 16°C but has already done 95km, thus moving a lot faster on average per day compared to his friends Caddy and Donny in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal.
Cumulatively these 3 turtles have travelled just over 450km in the last 6 days since release. We get about 6 – 8 positions per day from their satellite tags and look forward to tracking and sharing their ocean journeys in the weeks to come.”
The foundation has partnered with South African Marine Biological Research, Bay World PE, East London Aquarium and Mandela University to implement this exciting sea turtle project. Thanks to all parties, they have been able to follow the almost simultaneous movements post-release.
by 