TOURIST TURTLES

Kate holding the second Green Turtle found off Wollongong within a month. This poor creature died due to plastic ingestion!

If only that were true - two sub adult green turtles within a month of each other! Both of the turtles should have been in North Queensland, not in the cold waters of Wollongong. So something was obviously very wrong.

The first turtle was found south off Wollongong with damage to his ‘shell’, possibly a boat strike. The second turtle found just to the north (spotted by a member of the public, Anthony and his children). The turtle was covered in seagrass and presenting as quite unwell, seen here with Australian Seabird Rescue team member Kate.

Being under license to National Parks, and required to contact them immediately regarding turtles, they were both transported to the ‘ magic’ team of vets at Taronga Zoo Hospital. After overnight care with Kay turtle 1 and Katie turtle 2, turtle number 1 will happily be released after repair work and R and R. Turtle number 2 unfortunately died at the zoo and an autopsy was carried out to find out why. Yep, you guessed it- a plastic shopping bag!

So this poor creature has drifted south on the current-  starving hungry - in pain with her intestines ‘Clagged’ up- unable to dive. In such a bad way she’s even been ignored by sharks.

Come on everyone- when are we going to wake up! Please if you see a discarded piece of plastic please pick it up and put it in a bin- if everyone did this it would make a big impact on what ends up in the ocean. Think twice about balloons also, especially helium-yeh they look good-yeh kids love them- but where do most end up? Yep- the ocean. ASR successfully lobbied the NSW Government to ban the mass release of balloons at Government and sporting events.

You see- floating in the water they look like jelly blubbers-the staple diet of many sea creatures and pelagic sea birds. We also just lost an endangered Northern Giant Petrel, most likely to plastic ingestion. 

Please- Stop- Think- Look- Act!!!

The ocean is part of our ‘life blood’. If we keep abusing it, the end result will be catastrophic to both human and creature existence. Even on pristine Lord Howe Island adult and baby birds that have died have had an unbelievable amount of plastic in their gut.

We do like to tell good stories- so if we all pull together it will make it a lot easier to do this.

Betty