Rehabilitated green turtles set free at Blythedale

The South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR) team marked a milestone in their work last Wednesday when they released two rehabilitated sub-adult green turtles.

Odin and Duke were released near Blythedale beach.

Both turtles were admitted to the sea turtle hospital at uShaka Sea World last year, and their release was a cause for celebration after months of rehabilitation.

Anglers discovered Odin extremely emaciated and dehydrated near the Bluff in October 2022 with little chance of survival.

But after eight weeks of tube feeding and medication, he started to feed by himself and gained 10kg during his six months of rehabilitation.

Odin was fitted with an acoustic tag to track his future movements along the KZN coastline.

“Odin is one of our most remarkable turtle rehabilitation stories as his journey from the brink of death, to passing his pre-release health checks was tough but absolutely incredible. Odin was the hospital sweetheart and managed to charm everyone with his dogmatic resilience. I am overjoyed and really cannot believe that his release day has arrived,” said Malini Pather, uShaka Sea World lead aquarist for quarantine and sea turtle rehabilitation.

Duke was found floating upside down in a pool of water at Garvies Beach, also near the Bluff, in December 2021 but quickly responded to rehabilitation.

SAAMBR’s turtle tagging and telemetry research project, which has been monitoring and researching turtles for the past 60 years, will continue to track Odin’s movements and contribute to a large national and international dataset on the oceanic movement of wild and rehabilitated sea turtles, according to executive manager Maryke Musson.

Follow The North Coast Courier on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube for breaking news

Telegram Broadcast Service: https://t.me/joinchat/yJULuN8NaCs5OGM0