Sea turtles are beautiful, graceful and inspiring, but they’re also migratory and mysterious.
While their mystery is part of their charm, one must also bear in mind they’re endangered and therefore need to be conserved.
That’s why four of South Africa’s aquariums, together with a leading research institute, are working together to tag sub-adult and adult turtles that have been rescued, rehabilitated and then released acoustically. Acoustic tagging for turtles may sound odd.
How do you hear them? What are you listening for?
Well, what the acoustic receivers pick up are the pings from the tags, which are about the size of a small matchbox, attached to the turtles’ shells.
There are 285 moored receivers in South African waters, and that includes marine and estuarine environments.
In December, in one of the most recent acoustic tag releases, the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation’s Turtle Conservation Centre took four sub-adult turtles back to their ocean home, using De Hoop, for the release.
It’s a no-take area with ample fish and invertebrate resources, sea grasses, algae and a typically warmer current than South Africa’s west coast, all of which is beneficial for the turtles.
From acoustically-tagged turtles released before December, Cape Town’s Turtle Conservation Centre has received two reports so far.
Some turtles stayed around De Hoop for five months, one of the turtles went up to the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast and then came back to De Hoop.
The good news is that the receivers in De Hoop will be retrieved in the next two months.
That may produce data about the turtles released in December.
