Green Turtle Rescue
By Keith and Karen

Saturday, 30th November 2024

Whilst on our Saturday 30 November morning cruise, Skipper Keith noticed a brown blob floating near St Croix island. On closer inspection they identified the mass as a trawler net and there was a young turtle entangled in it. It was a bit difficult to tell the species from the photograph. From what Ruth Wright, of the Bayworld Turtle Rehab Facility could see, it was a Green Turtle. Our guests were only too happy to assist the crew with pulling the net up and cut all the nylon cords to free the turtle. On inspection he did not seem at all injured, thank goodness! He was very active and very happy to swim away when we put him back in the water.

Our guests were so excited and thrilled about being part of the turtle rescue. The net was brought back to be disposed of. Sad that this happens but it was a great result in the end.

Green turtles are listed as endangered, making this rescue that bit more special than it already was. The population decline is due to them being hunted for their fat, meat and eggs and loss of nesting beaches.

These turtles occur globally and are named Green Turtles as they are herbivores and eat mostly seagrass and algae. This diet makes their fat green and not their shells. The shells are brown or olive in colour. They travel great distances and have amazing lung capacity staying under the water for long periods of time of up to 5 hours.

Only the females return to land to lay their egg. Once the female is mature – at an age of 20 to 35 years, they return to the same beach where they hatched. They dig a hole in the sand with their flippers and lay up to about 120 eggs. The temperature of the sand determines the sex, warmer sand (29° C and above) produces females and cooler than that produces males. They can live for between 70 to 100 years of age. We hope the conservation efforts of various parties will help get the numbers up again.