Durban — A 14kg female green turtle named Duke, who had come into uShaka Sea World in Durban last month with buoyancy problems, is making a recovery.
Duke is at the SA Association for Marine Biological Research (Saambr) Sea Turtle Hospital in Durban. Lead quarantine aquarist Malini Pather said that Duke’s progress was indicative of a releasable patient. Duke will be moved to a bigger pool over the weekend.
“If she carries on this path making progress she will be released although it’s hard to say when. For now there are minor concerns.”
Pather said a lesion on the back of the turtle’s neck was also healing well.
“We think the lesion might have been a result of being unable to position her head properly because of her buoyancy issues and she had her head pressed against her shell edge. Her buoyancy is improving.”
She explained that the pool that Duke would be moving to would have been cleaned and disinfected just like the one she would be leaving, making it safe for use for another animal patient.
Pather said that the animal quarantine hospital catered to fish, turtles, sharks, invertebrates as well as the odd bird.
“South Africa boasts a wide variety of bugs and this is why we put animals in treatment before releasing them. We do the same when they come in to see if they can thrive in managed care environments, they stay there for roughly 40 days.”
She explained that released animals have a satellite tag put onto them which allowed for their movements to tracked.
One such turtle was Maia, who was one of four animals released last month.
She was found in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in December 2020 with a woven plastic bag so tightly wrapped around her left front flipper that it caused severe necrosis and the partial loss of that flipper.
Saambr’s Ann Kunz said Maia has travelled all the way to Mozambique. Maia was released on December 13 and made her way up to Mozambique by December 21, at an average of a half-marathon swim per day.
“By Christmas Day, Maia was already in Maputo Bay, an area she seems to really enjoy as she is still crisscrossing this protected site now known as the Maputo National Park, which is seen as an extension of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park,” she said.
Kunz said this protected area is truly magnificent, with rich species diversity, and is home to 104 species of conservation significance, such as sea turtles and even dugongs.
Daily News