The Great Turtle Rescue

A giant leatherback turtle was rescued on June 20th after being spotted tangled in fishing nets off Meia Praia beach.

The turtle, seen struggling in the water was brought to shore with the help of holidaymakers, the maritime police and lifeguards, who helped lift the 300-kilo reptile onto a vehicle to be taken to Zoomarine’s marine-life rehabilitation centre.

Zoomarine said, “To all, thank you so much for the selflessness with which you have given up your time and energy to help in this effort. Let’s try everything so it has not been in vain.”

Leatherbacks are the largest of all living turtles and have no shell, so experts were worried about the injuries to the skin and the possibility that it had inhaled water that could lead to pneumonia.

It has been weeks full of challenges for the Zoomarine team with initially the turtle refusing to eat the frozen squid being served by its carers. This led to an appeal for local fisherman to bring the turtles favourite food, jellyfish, to tempt him into eating. Fishermen responded and Zoomarine confirmed to Tomorrow Magazine that he is now eating.

The rescue has caught the imagination of the public and a facebook poll to find a name resulted in the patriotic monika of Quinas being selected. (The coat of arms of Portugal is popularly referred to as the Quinas) The vote had more than 1,750 participants.  

But the good news does not end here, the latest blood test revealed an improvement in the turtles conditioning with low white blood cells (indicators of infection).

Zoomarine’s press office says; “We can begin to have consolidated hopes that this great and beautiful marine giant can be saved and quickly return to the wild.”

weprotect.zoomarine.pt/en/