Emergency Rescue: Saving Endangered Turtles

Dear Supporters, 

Our team has been very busy and since our last report we have rescued over 80 turtles this year, it's a military style operation for us and it's all hand on deck from day one once the turtles arrive at our hospital. It is also a very expensive project as the medical bills along with the food bills can be around $3,000 per turtle and this is just the start. 

While it is always a challenge to save them and keep fundraising it is also great to see our efforts work and this time around I am excited to share with you the progress of Litchi.

Help Litchi Swim Free

Litchi the turtle is returning to the ocean at the end of 2021, or early 2022 and we need your help to fit her with a tracker that will cost $2,400 so that we can see where Litchi is headed next.

When Litchi first arrived she was in very good body condition, but had many marine leeches attached to her! There were small leeches in her nose and many larger leeches around her tail and back flippers, with many mats of leech eggs across her body.

Leeches suck the blood from turtles (which left Litchi quite anaemic), but they are also vectors for viruses, most commonly Fibropapilloma (herpes virus). Thankfully there was no indication that Litchi has this virus with it usually presenting externally with the growth of tumours. After time in our hospital and monitoring by the experts it is time for Litchi to go home and we just now need to raise the funds to buy her tag. 

If you can, please share this story and help us raise the funds needed. If we do raise more funds don't worry, all the donations go directly to our turtle project and help rescue and save others like Litchi.

Thank you for supporting these amazing Turtles!

Introduction 

Our project rescues, rehabilitates and releases stranded and distressed sea turtles as part of our conservation mission. With the support of organisations and volunteers along the Western Cape's coast, hundreds of sea turtles have been saved, reared to full strength and released back into the wild.

Report 

More than 60 rescued sea turtles have arrived at the Two Oceans Aquarium in 2021 so far - every one of them stranded and found by a member of the public. These distressed animals have no chance of survival without care and rehabilitation.

Caring for our rescued sea turtles takes a lot of time and resources: 

• 1 500 hours of care per turtle 
• R25 000 vet costs a month
• 2.5 tons of turtle food a year
• 15 turtle rehab team members
• 500 lookouts and transporters in the Turtle Rescue Network

71% of rescued turtles have passed plastic pollution (12 pieces per turtle on average). A small donation of just $20 will provide vital signage on beaches to advise the public on what to do if a turtle washes up!

Thank you for your support