Durban - Forty-eight hatchling and four post-hatchling loggerhead turtles, plus one juvenile green turtle, were admitted to the uShaka Sea World Rehabilitation Centre on Thursday.These young turtles had been flown from Cape Town, where they had spent just over six months recovering at the Two Oceans Aquarium after an unfortunate ordeal at sea in the wrong current, and would have been unable to survive the icy Cape temperatures.
For the first few years of their lives, young turtles survive by floating in the open ocean at water temperatures of about 22°C, and they therefore could not have been released in the Cape waters.
It is anticipated that they will spend only a few weeks in the care of uShaka Sea World staff before being taken out west of the Agulhas current and released.
While they are in the rehabilitation facility they will be fed, monitored and given a final examination by resident veterinarian, Dr Francois Lampin, before being released.