Kelly Tarltons Underwater World turtle released to wild

[Chlidonias]

Tarly the turtle re-released into wild - New Zealand news on Stuff.co.nz

An injured sea turtle, nursed back to health for more than year, was released into the wild near the Poor Knights Islands, off the east coast of Northland today.


The loggerhead turtle, named Tarly, was cared for by staff at Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World rescue and rehabilitation team and the Department of Conservation.

Prior to the release, the turtle was fitted with a satellite tag which would enable staff at Kelly Tarlton's to track her movements and learn more about these mysterious creatures.

Kelly Tarlton curator Andrew Christie said sea turtles were notoriously secretive and were also extremely threatened with six of the seven species recognised as endangered or critically endangered.

"The more we know, the more we can help protect them ... We expect that, because so little is known about sea turtles, the information we gather from this tag will be of interest to the scientific community abroad," he said.

In the 14 months she had been at the Auckland oceanarium, the turtle had thrived, nearly doubling her weight and hitting the scales at an impressive 80kg, Mr Christie said.

Loggerheads were extremely rare in New Zealand waters.

Tarly washed up on Baylys Beach near Dargaville in November 2007, suffering from dehydration and exhaustion and had large, raw wounds on the back of her head.

A course of antibiotics was administered and she was tube fed a special formula of fluids and prescription cat food to regain her strength.

By late January 2008 she was feeding well and was ready to enter the oceanarium.

Mr Christie said the process of nursing animals like Tarly back to health usually took one to two years, and watching them swim away when released is "both a little sad and extremely fulfilling".

The facility currently had two more recovering turtles - a hawksbill and a green.

The hawksbill turtle is on the World Conservation Union's critically endangered list.

 

[Chlidonias]

a new article on turtle releases with some figures (i.e. 72 vagrant sea turtles treated since 1995!!):
Turtles to be released at Poor Knights Islands | Northern Advocate

18 Feb 2013

Tiny is a bit special - he's the smallest turtle to be found in New Zealand waters.

He was washed up on a beach on Auckland's west coast after struggling in a storm. He was just the length of a pen and weighed 600g.

But after two years in rehabilitation at Kelly Tarlton's, he's three times that length and 10 times the weight.

Today he's expected to be released back into the ocean with four other turtles at the Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve.

Kelly Tarlton's started a turtle rehabilitation programme in 1995 to treat sick or injured turtles found around New Zealand's waters. So far, they have treated 72 sick turtles.

Green turtles like Tiny, named after the colour of their flesh, are the species most commonly taken to Kelly Tarlton's, but they have also treated hawksbill and loggerhead turtles - all breeds classed as endangered.

One of the hawksbill turtles ready to be released came to the rehabilitation programme wrapped in net and rope.

Kelly Tarlton's curator Andrew Christie said the rope must have been around the turtle's shell long enough to cause a deformity while growing and had scarred him from the continuous rubbing on his skin around the flippers.

Mr Christie is looking forward to setting the now healthy turtles free.

"There's nothing like it, eh, watching them go off into the big blue."

The divers are also looking forward to having the turtles released. When they are in the big tanks after being strengthened on fluids, muscles, squid and herring, the turtles nip the divers' fingers.

"They're looking forward to getting the feeling back in their fingertips," said Mr Christie. Before being released back into the wild the turtles are tagged.

This year, one green turtle, nicknamed "Fatty" by some of the divers, has been satellite tagged, allowing its journey to be tracked and studied.

The remaining four turtles to be released have been fitted with flipper identification tags, which are used to identify them if the turtle is seen again.