It’s loggerhead turtle hatchling stranding time again and members of the public should keep a look out for the little marine reptiles.
That’s the call from Bayworld which has developed a first-rate turtle rescue, rehabilitation and research system.
Bayworld aquarium curator and turtle rehabilitation head expert Ruth Wright said the loggerhead hatchlings stranded on Eastern Cape and Southern Cape beaches from mid-February and mid-May.
“It happens when there’s a storm out at sea and they are washed out of the Agulhas current,” she said.
“They’re too weak to get back in again and, instead, find themselves washed into the shallows, and then onto the shore.
“The stranding season in fact started three weeks early this year, and last week alone we received four hatchlings from Bushman’s, Kenton, Jeffreys and St Francis.”
Aquarium operations curator and marine research scientist Dr Dylan Bailey said SA’s loggerheads began life in northern KwaZulu-Natal in places such as the isiMangaliso Wetland Park, where the adult females nested.
He said the unborn loggerheads had a yolk sac in their eggs which they absorbed into their bodies.
“This nourishment sustains the hatchlings from the time they emerge and scurry across the beach to when they can find their own food, mostly bluebottles, out in the Agulhas current.”
He said if all went well, the little loggerheads were swept down the coast in the conveyor belt-like current.
“We don’t understand completely how it works but they have a built-in magnetic compass which switches on when they reach the food-rich Agulhas Bank, and they know at that point they must swim west out of the current.”
He said it was not clear how long the young turtles spent in the Agulhas Bank paradise, but at a certain point they made their way into the open ocean.
“At the end of these ‘lost years’, they return as adults to the exact northern KwaZulu-Natal beach where they were born, and the cycle starts again.”
He said former Bayworld marine biologist Dr Malcolm Smale had initiated an audio telemetry system to try to track the loggerhead’s “lost years”.
Interesting data was starting to emerge from studies led by Nelson Mandela University researcher Dr Ronel Nel.
Wright said if anyone did come upon a stranded turtle hatchling on the beach, no attempt should be made to put it back in the water.
It had stranded for a reason so putting it back could be a death sentence.
“Contact the stranding hotline for that area, place the hatchling in a small container on a dry towel or cloth, and keep the container out of the direct sun and wind.
“The nearest rehab centre will make collection plans.”
Onshore winds typically deliver a swathe of bluebottles which end up perishing in long blue lines along the high water mark.
Members of the open water community are collecting buckets of these fresh blue bottle carcasses and taking them into Bayworld to support the turtle rehabilitation programme.
The stranding hotline numbers are 071-724-2122 (Bayworld), 082-328-1121 (East London Aquarium) and 078-463-4837 (Plettenberg Bay). — The Herald
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