A tiny loggerhead turtle covered in barnacles was found on Northland’s Ninety Mile Beach. After being nursed back to health at Auckland Zoo, it has been transferred to Kelly Tarlton’s.
A young loggerhead sea turtle was found far from home when it washed up on Northland’s Ninety Mile Beach last week.
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A public member came across the tiny barnacle-covered turtle on July 8 and contacted the Department of Conservation.
A local vet removed the barnacles and a hitch-hiking crab from its shell, and the now-178-gram turtle was taken to Auckland Zoo’s vet clinic for further treatment.
Veterinary nurse Celine Campana said sea turtles shouldn’t be found on land unless a female lays eggs. But because the turtle is so young, most likely under 18 months old, it definitely wasn’t nesting.
When the turtle arrived at the zoo, Campana said it was weak, unresponsive, and cold.
It has slowly been warmed to its usual temperature of 24 degrees and given fluids to help it rehydrate.
X-ray scans showed no obvious problems with the turtle but Campana said it was safe to say it had been unwell in the past.
One thing an X-ray couldn’t show was if it had or hadn’t ingested plastic.
“These little guys are too small to crunch on crabs or shellfish, which is their normal diet. At this age, they are pre-programmed to grab any little floating things they find.
“Unfortunately, when they come across little bits of plastic, they will just go for them voraciously.”
Finding a loggerhead turtle on a New Zealand beach was rare as they usually live in warmer waters. It was likely the turtle had swum off-track from Australia.
When sea turtles hatch, Campana said they immediately swim deep into the ocean and stay there as it is much safer.
They live undersea grass and items that float, and it is possible this is where it picked up the barnacles.
Barnacles weren’t usually too much of an issue for sea turtles, but because of their small size, they would have weighed them down and made swimming more difficult, Campana said.
Auckland Zoo said it was “highly unusual” to treat such a creature, and in its ten years of helping marine sea turtles, it had only looked after about three other loggerheads.
On Friday, the Auckland Zoo team transferred the turtle to Kelly Tarlton’s through its Team Turtle partnership.
There, it will continue its rehabilitation, hoping it will one day be released back into the ocean.
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