Pemba the turtle released into the wild
Pemba was released within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park after four years of rehabilitation.
IT was bittersweet moment last week for senior aquarist at uShaka Marine World, Leanna Botha as she said goodbye to Pemba, an adult Olive Ridley turtle that was rehabilitated and released thanks to the efforts of the Two Oceans Aquarium and uShaka Sea World. Pemba was released within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park after four years of rehabilitation.
“Pemba was found stranded on a beach in Cape Town in 2014 and was initially taken through to Two Oceans. They found that she had a fracture to the side of her carapace (shell) and had problems with her lungs. When she was sent to our Turtle Rehabilitation facility in 2016 we took her for a CT scan and that was when our vet noticed that the lungs appeared over inflated. We are not sure why she developed that condition.
“We worked with her for around 16 months where we continued with rehabilitation and encouraging her to dive by placing pieces of food of her holding pool and she began diving to get it which was a positive sign. There was a natural process that got better over time with encouraging her to dive with enrichment and feeding.
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“Eventually she got to a point where she didn’t require encouragement and we decided to release her into the wild which was a bittersweet moment for both the staff and I, because we’d grown so attached to her. I was very fortunate to be part of her release and and it was rewarding to see our efforts have a positive end,” she said.
Botha added the wetland park was the perfect release point for Pemba as it was a marine protected area.
“There are a number of off-shore reefs which are perfect feeding grounds for turtles who feed mainly on crustaceans. Pemba also made history as she is the first Olive Ridley turtle ever tagged in South Africa. The satellite tag will allow us to track where she goes, already we can see she’s swimming along the west coast of Africa,” she said.
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