Whatshot
Turtle Rescue
Turtle Rescue
A very sick and lethargic loggerhead turtle was rescued by the Lifeguards at Umhlanga main beach on Sunday, 20 January. She was taken to uShaka Sea World (Saambr) for treatment. She was in particularly bad condition weighing in at only 58kg (a turtle her size should be ~100kg) and covered in an excessive amount of barnacles.
She possessed a tag on her flipper and some notches in her shell which told us many interesting things about her life: She had been tagged 14km south of the Mozambican border on 31 December 2005 in the South African Turtle Nesting Programme. It was recorded that she nested at 22h48 on an evening which had clear skies and a fresh breeze.
The notching told us that she hatched close to Kosi Bay between October 1982 and March 1983. This makes her 36 years old and she nested at the age of 22.

