Scientists who rescued two large green sea turtles, from a cordoned-off section of the uMzimkhulu estuary, have expressed excitement at the opportunity to learn more about the oceanic movements of large green sea turtles.
A month ago, two were rescued by a team of stakeholders, including the uShaka Marine World, eThekwini Municipality, the NSRI and the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation.
One of the turtles, a female, was released shortly after her rescue whilst the other, a male weighing almost 110kg, was taken to uShaka Sea World for observation, DNA sampling and satellite tagging.
Timothy Smith, Turtle Rehabilitation Specialist, said the remaining one was named Andy, after Andy Coetzee, who assisted in the planning and rescue of both animals.
"Before Andy was retuned to the estuary, he was fitted with four different tags.
A flipper to identify him, an acoustic one, to ping the series of receivers along the southern African coast, a PIT tag which is retained for long periods under the skin and can assist later identification, and finally, a satellite for long distance tracking" said Smith.
The satellite tag was donated by Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation.