Tiny Turtle Storm of 2023

A day in the life of a Loggerhead hatchling

While loggerhead turtles nest on the northern KwaZulu-Natal coast, they are frequent migrants to the Southern and Eastern Cape coastline. A few turtles come ashore in this area every year and are taken in for rehabilitation. However, 2023 saw the largest mass stranding of this species in more than a decade. The Bayworld Turtle Rehabilitation team received over 100 hatchlings, straining resources. This talk will introduce the life of Loggerhead turtle hatchlings along our coastline and discuss possible reasons for why they strand. It will recount how the team rehabilitated this large group, and what the outcomes were. It will attempt to explain why such an unseasonably large number that stranded in 2023.

ABOUT RUTH WRIGHT

Ruth studied Marine Biology at UCT and worked for a few years at Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, before moving to PE. She has been working in turtle rehabilitation at Bayworld for 10 years and find it the most fun, challenging, and at times heart breaking, but thoroughly rewarding journey. for her there's no better feeling in the world than to rehabilitate a turtle and release it back into the ocean.

This event takes place on: