CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — An aquarium in South Africa is sold out after more than 500 babies sea turtles were washed ashore by a rare and powerful storm and rescued by members of the public.
Small turtles are mostly endangered loggerheads and should be crossing the ocean. Most of them will spend the first few months of their lives in newly constructed plastic tanks at the Two Oceans Aquarium Turtle Conservation Center in Cape Town. The aquarium is rehabilitating about 400 of the roughly 530 sick and injured turtles that were brought in, while sending the rest to two other aquariums to distribute the cargo.
Baby turtles have to fend for themselves from the moment they hatch on beaches and head into the ocean.
In South Africa, loggerheads hatch on the northeast coast, on the other side of the country from Cape Town. These turtles were probably sucked up by the warm Agulhas Current of the Indian Ocean, transported around the tip of South Africa and spit out into the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Town.
This is quite common, said Talitha Noble-Trull, head of the Turtle Conservation Center. She is in charge of treating new arrivals.
What is not normal is the powerful storm which recently hit the Cape Town region, leaving hundreds of baby turtles in need of help.
The conservation center typically receives about 100 young stranded turtles in the three to four months following hatching season. It has a normal capacity for 150 turtles.
“What we haven’t seen before is over 500 turtles in two weeks, which is what the last little bit of time has brought us,” Noble-Trull said. “My budget plans for the year really went out the window.”
She estimated that each turtle will cost $500 to return to full strength before being released into the warmer Indian Ocean in a few months. The Turtle Conservation Center brought in a small army of volunteers to help the aquarium’s full-time staff care for them.
Turtles are classified according to the degree of illness, with some requiring intensive care due to injuries, malnutrition or infection. A number is written on each shell to identify them.
Although the storm came as a big shock to the turtles, who are vulnerable to extreme weather conditions and climate changegave Noble-Trull and other conservationists valuable insight into another increasingly common danger.
Many of the turtles ingested small pieces of plastic, which left their systems after arriving at the aquarium. Noble-Trull has a tray of plastic pieces collected in just one day, some the size of a fingernail.
Conservation staff wouldn’t normally see so much evidence of plastic pollution in the ocean.
Turtles spend almost their entire lives in the ocean, except when they are born and when the females return to the coast to lay eggs. Because of this, they are “oceanic indicators,” Noble-Trull said.
“Little pieces of soft plastic, little pieces of hard plastic are floating throughout the oceans and turtles are eating them. So, for us it is very important to collect and capture this data. Because these turtles come to us with a message. They’re not telling us. They are screaming at us. That our oceans are not a safe place for turtles.”
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