Saved a Turtle Yesterday!

[FOX]

On a rare day off I was walking along the beach at the Leeward end of Provo with Sarah and after a couple of minutes we both saw something out of place in the seaweed (sea grapes)at the edge of the surf, we both thought it was a bit of bark or an old shell at first.

We went over to take a closer look and it turned out to be a small (juvenille) turtle with loads of fishing line firmly wrapped round it's front fin. He was alive so we carefully fished him out of the surf and after a frantic drive to the closest dive centre (which was closed) we managed to find some side cutters and cut off the bulk of the line. We then grabbed a bucket of sea water, plopped him in it and after another frantic drive ended up at the Conch Farm (for some obscure reason I remembered from an artical I read taht they take in rescue turtles). The staff there were fantastic, they managed to untangle what was left of the line, put him in tank they have for just such occasions, and after letting him settle in for a bit gave him a meal of fresh (just extracted) Conch (poor Conch!).

Unfortunately we didn't have a camera at the time but when I next get the chance I want to check on his progress and take a piccy or two, watch this space.
They think he's a Hawksbill Turtle and reckon he'll be fine, hopefully we'll see him before he's released! They also had a tiny baby turtle there with a ridged back, not sure what type tho!

We went back to the beach about 30min later and the tide had gone out and where we found him was just a load of drying seaweed, I think he was one lucky little fella that we were in the right place at the right time!

Not that they're likely to read YD but I'd really like to express my thanks to the staff of the Conch Farm on Providenciales, they were very professional and knew what to do even though it's not their bread and butter rescuing turtles! Welcome to the Caicos Conch Farm Website - Turks and Caicos

[purple vonny]

What a great story, well done! It might be tempting to return a stranded or entangled turtle to the sea but they could be suffering from shock, dehydration, exhaustion or even partial drowning so you did the right thing to take it somewhere it could recover.

There are three small turtles at the Sea Life Centre in Weymouth that were found on beaches around Britain. One of them is about 2 months old and was found in Devon by tourists on the beach. They asked some surfers to take it back out to sea but, fortunately, the surfers were marine biologists and called the coastguard and RSPCA. She ended up in the turtle sanctuary and is doing very well and will be released in the Canaries soon.

[Scubee]

Well done!

[ScubaSue]

Nice one Ian!

[Ding Dang Doo]

Good Man!

Bit of a soft spot for 'Turts'...

Duuuuuuuuude..... Totally

Pete

[Lou]

Ahhh, my cockles are warmed. Well done!

[B]

Ahhh that is really lovely...

Well done!!


B x