Sea-turtles a’plenty

Sometimes it feels like we should call ourselves ‘Flying Turtles’, judging from the amount of sea-turtles that we rescued over the years!

Last month we rescued not one, but two animals that were placed under our care. One was a rather large good old fashioned Loggerhead, Caretta caretta, and we have now recovered nearly 100 of those since the Aquário de Porto Pim opened in 2013.

This specific animal came from Rotterdam Zoo, similarly to the two animals received from this institution nearly one year ago.

The second was a rarer Green turtle, Chelonia mydas, which are much less abundant. This one was smaller than the Caretta and both were fitted with satellite transmitters, so they could be tracked online after being reintroduced in the big wide ocean.

Needless to say these operations always rely on our good friend, and researcher, Frederick Vandeperre, from the University of the Azores, who’s quickly becoming “Mr. Sea-turtle”!

It is our absolute pleasure to assist in these operations, which include feeding, administering pharmaceuticals, and basically providing for the best possible environment for these animals.

And many thanks to our friend Filipe Pereira for the awesome photos and be sure to check out his amazing photographic work at https://www.instagram.com/dino_dad_portugal/.