The Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation admitted their 20th rescue turtle last night; the turtle arrived with two other hatchlings found on Western Cape beaches.
Cape Town, South Africa (06 April 2022) – The turtle stranding season is getting underway as the season shifts from summer to autumn and there are still turtle hatchlings finding their way to the Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation’s rehabilitation centre.
The team took in three new hatchlings last night, marking their 20th turtle rescue for the season. The foundation prepares its hatchling centre to take in hundreds of tiny turtles washed off course each year. They also raise awareness and educate South Africans who may find the hatchlings stranded on the beach.
With the help of a handy rescue network, the team can save turtles up and down the Western Cape coastline.
Why do turtle hatchlings wash up?
The reason so many of these hatchlings wash up on the Western Cape coastlines is that 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, and they get gradually weaker and weaker as they try to return to the Agulhas – an effort that is made increasingly difficult in bad weather or if the turtle has been harmed by ingesting plastic pollution.
It is these weakened hatchlings that 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.
Meet #20.
The turtles that arrive at the foundation’s rehabilitation are named using numbers.
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