Cedar, the endangered green turtle released in mid-December from Bayworld after rehabilitation, is heading towards the tropics and doing fine.
That is the latest information from the satellite tag which was fitted before her release in Algoa Bay.
Though all Bayworld turtle releases are microchipped and DNA-sampled, this was the first time an adult sea turtle had been satellite-tagged, so the team behind the initiative had been following her progress closely, marine fish husbandry curator Ruth Wright said on Thursday.
“It will provide invaluable information to add to the extensive species monitoring already under way in Algoa Bay and the waters off the Eastern Cape,” she said.
“It has been very exciting monitoring her and trying to work out what she’s doing and where she’s headed.”
Cedar was found washed up on the rocks at Seaview in May 2018. Ailing turtles often have trouble with buoyancy and she was unable to dive, indicating an infection.
After expert feeding and treatment, however, she had gained weight from 49kg to 60kg and was ready to strike out again.
She was satellite-tagged with the help of the department of environmental affairs and the Pan-African Association of Zoos and Aquaria, and then released with two other green turtles and two juvenile loggerheads on December 15 off St Croix Island.
While loggerheads and leatherbacks are resident in South African waters, nesting on beaches in northern KwaZulu-Natal, green turtles are South African vagrants, nesting elsewhere but spending part of their lifecycles here.
Green turtles can grow up to 150kg but they are threatened by a variety of human activities, including marine pollution, being mistakenly caught in fishing nets, hunting for food and by development disturbing key nesting beaches.
The species occurs through tropical and sub-tropical waters and youngsters from islands in the Mozambican current forge down to the eastern and southern Cape waters to feed, Bayworld senior curator Dylan Bailey said.
“We have a much richer diversity of seaweed than up in the tropics so they use that as a feeding strategy until the age of 25-30 when they hit sexual maturity and head north again.”
Bailey said on average a handful of green turtles stranded in the Bay a year, though some years there were none.
Cedar will be tracked for about 24 months while the tag’s battery lasts and the tag will eventually fall off, he said.
Wright said the turtle in the spotlight had spent some time in Algoa Bay after her release, before heading out.
“She meandered about, presumably feeding, and then suddenly put some distance behind her.
“The last time we checked she was more or less off Kidd’s Beach near East London.
“Sea turtles always return to where they hatched so it’s going to be very interesting to see where she lands up.”
Bayworld’s turtle programme is linked to research at Nelson Mandela University and is run with the Addo Elephant National Park.
For Cedar’s tracking page and a video of her release, go to http://www.cfoo.co.za/turtle1.php