Five sea turtles will be release tomorrow at Lighthouse Beach Ballina taking the number of rehabilitated turtles released by Australian Seabird Rescue in Ballina to 25 over the last five months.
‘Australian Seabird Rescue has been churning out the rehabilitated turtles at a high rate. Since October last year, we have already released 20 turtles, that’s not including these five that we will be releasing. We have been really busy with rehabilitating sea turtles for the past two years, with an average of ten or more turtles in care at any time,’ said General Manager, Kathrina Southwell.
The turtles will be released near the front of the surf club, or possibly a bit further south of surf club, depending on ocean conditions at 8.20am on Friday March 22.
‘Kiwi the small Hawksbill was rescued back on New Years Eve and was extremely skinny but just last week, gained 300 grams in a week while Squidly the Green Sea Turtle has been in care since the end of January and had a high barnacle load on his shell but has made a full recovery’ said Ms Southwell.
‘Lion was suffering from float syndrome which can be caused from eating plastic. Lion has a beautiful shell and is very fat and healthy now. Jaguar has been in care for 13 weeks and is also a Green Turtle and has been gaining weight really quickly in the past month.
‘Blue footed Booby the Green Sea Turtle has been a bit of a cheeky patient and has bitten a few volunteers when they least expected it while being treated for his illness. And I personally am glad he is ready for release,’ she said.
All of the animals have been lovingly named by the volunteers after animals she explained. The volunteers of Australian Seabird Rescue go onto a waiting list and when their name comes up, they have the opportunity to release a sea turtle to thank them for all of the hard work they do to rehabilitate the animals in care.
If you are interested in volunteering with us, please send an email to [email protected] to organise a time for an interview.
