Durban — Three months ago, Ohana, a green turtle was admitted at the Sea Turtle Hospital at uShaka Sea World, but today, she is once again frolicking in the big blue sea.
The South African Association for Marine Biological Research’s (Saambr) Ann Kunz said that over the last two decades, Saambr had released more than 80% of rescued turtles admitted to its Sea Turtle Hospital at uShaka Sea World in need of medical care.
“Earlier this week, we had the opportunity to add to this amazing rehabilitation success rate.”
Kunz said that a tiny little green turtle, covered in barnacles, was found by a member of the public on Doonside beach last October and was admitted to the Sea Turtle Hospital in a very weak state. She weighed just over 1kg and was estimated to be about a year old.
The turtle rehabilitation team named her Ohana, the Hawaiian term meaning “family” as her rescue and admission relied on a whole network of “ocean family members”, including the eManzimtoti lifeguards, the public, eThekwini Law Enforcement and the KZN Marine Stranding Network.
“Little Ohana was rehydrated on arrival, and we started her on a course of antibiotics. After a nice long bath and scrub to get rid of all her unwanted ‘baggage’ (epibiota, which refers to organisms that live on the surface of another one, and in Ohana’s case, a lot of goose barnacles) she started feeding by herself,” Kunz said.
She said this was often the first indication that the sea turtle patient was determined to heal.
“She also started diving in her holding tank nine days after her rescue, another good indicator of a turtle on the mend.
“She gained 400g over the next two months and showed us that she was feisty, strong and ready to return to her real ocean home. Our clinical veterinarian issued her with a clean bill of health for release after a final medical examination and on the 23rd of January, little Ohana was released back into the ocean,” Kunz said.
She said that their “sea turtle rescue family” was well represented. They were joined on board the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Makhanda, Eastern Cape vessel, Phakisa, by the National Sea Rescue Institute, SPCA Lower South, eThekwini Municipality, Durban Undersea Club, as well as ocean stewards from WildOceans.
“It was a beautiful send-off for this little ocean warrior back into the big blue,” Kunz said.
When Ohana was admitted, Kunz said that the diagnostics revealed dehydration, gas trapped in her intestinal tract (as can be seen on the X-ray and could be indicative of a plastic obstruction in the gut), as well as an infection (reactive white cells in her blood smear).
“Her treatment thus far has included supportive fluids, as well as antibiotics and we are keeping a close eye on her gut movement. She is receiving a lot of TLC from the turtle rehabilitation team and seems to have turned a corner and is starting to look stronger,” he added.
Daily News