Our volunteer at the Rescue Centre Joanne Stournara updates us on the events in April 2017.

“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.” (Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919)

As reported previously, the winter of 2016 and 2017 proved to be a record-breaking year as far as the number of turtles being treated. And I am sorry to say that most of their problems were caused by human actions. Of the total number of 33 turtles at the Center at the end of April 2017, 13 have injuries deliberately inflicted by human action, 8 have injuries related to fishing interaction (i.e. ingested hooks and/or lines and injuries caused by entanglement in nets), and most recently, 7 suffering from natural cause such as hypothermia due to the global climate change. The remaining 5 turtles are suffering from other types of problems.

ARRIVALS

“Lazaros”, a male CC, arrived from Rhodos on 4 April 2012. The turtle, whose carapace measures71.6 cm and who weighs 39 kilos, has carapace injuries which appear to have been intentionally inflicted by someone stabbing him. The turtle was found and rescued by the Rodos Hydrobiological Station. Fortunately, “Lazaros” is recovering well and hopefully will be released in the near future.

“Yakinthi”, a female CC, was found at nearby Varkiza beach. She arrived at the RC on 26 April 2017. She has no visible injuries, but may be suffering from gastrointestinal impaction because she is not eating. She managed to expel some strange-looking feces (which Pavlo suspects are sea cucumbers). Hopefully, this may be a sign “Yakinthi” is recovering. She was found by local residents, who notified the port police. Many thanks to the port police, who quickly came to rescue the turtle and stayed with the turtle on the beach until ARCHELON volunteers arrived to pick her up. Special thanks to port police member Eirini Folaki, who later came to the RC to check on the turtle and also brought some medical supplies.

“Zoe”, a CC whose carapace measured 65.1 cm and weighed 35.5 kilos, arrived from Zacharo on 2 April 2017 with a very severe head injury (intentionally inflicted by humans). Unfortunately, the turtle died on 24 April 2017 as a result of her injuries. Many local residents who had seen the turtle reported the incident and posted photos on FB, but didn’t do anything to rescue this turtle. Only one woman, Dimitra (along with her young son), covered the turtle and stayed with “Zoe” late into the night until the turtle was picked up and cared for by the same Costas and Judy mentioned above. Costas was kind enough to bring the turtle to Athens in his car the following day. (“Zoe” is a Greek word and name which means ‘Life’.)

UPDATES

‘Luna”, who has been in a big tank for some time, will be one of the first to be released.

‘Georgios’, who continues to improve, will continue his rehab in the big tank as soon as Luna is released.

‘Rhea’ had surgery to remove an ingested hook and is recovering well.

‘Sophia’ had an ingested hook in her mouth which was able to be removed without surgery, but surgery was required to remove her injured flipper. She is recovering well.

Did you know...

https://conserveturtles.org/information-sea-turtles-threats-sea-turtles/ and Incubation Temperature Effects on Hatchling Performance in the Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4269397/