Olive Ridley turtle, Pemba to be released off KZN coast

The marine animal - fondly known as Pemba - has been under rehabilitation for four years, initially monitored at Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town and later transferred to uShaka Marine World. 

Quarantine aquarist, Malini Pather says the reptile was at first unable to care for herself.  

"After an extensive period where they went through several procedures - it was decided that she will be moved to a rehab facility here. We believed the warmer temperatures would really help. The biggest concern was that she was unable to dive and that made her at that time non-releasable. 

"When she was moved here, we started our own diagnostics with her - which included a series of blood tests, X-rays, and a CT scan. We then started to assess her behaviourally. After four weeks, we noticed her behaviour was starting to change. We found that her lungs had appeared hyperventilated - which was the reason for her not being able to dive," Pather said.   

This species of sea turtle is found in warm and tropical waters - primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Pather says the reptile's patterns of behaviour started to slowly show progress.

Pemba's movements will then be monitored following her release off the coast tomorrow.

"What more than we do rather than to satellite tag her - to find out how she is using her environment, where she will be going, and what she will be doing. We're very excited about it. She is a Olive Ridley turtle and they are fairly uncommon in this part of the world. It'll be exciting to see what these Olive Ridleys do and this is the first time the reptile will be satellite tagged off the South African coast," Pather said.