(MY) turtle nursed back to health

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Nursed back to health, 70-year-old green turtle returns to the sea -

New Straits Times

12 Dec 2006

 

 

 

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ALOR STAR: After 76 days of treatment and care, a turtle, which was in

serious condition after swallowing plastic bags, was released into the

sea on Dec 3.

 

The green turtle, weighing 155kg, said to be one of the largest to

land in Malaysia over the past 15 years, was found on Sept 18 at Kuala

Sungai Muda, Kedah, by a six-year-old boy who saw the reptile

struggling in the mud.

 

The turtle was believed to have been making its way back to the sea

after laying eggs on the beach when it ate plastic bags left on the

beach by litterbugs.

 

It took six men to carry the reptile inland where villagers dug a hole

and placed the animal inside.

 

News of the landing, the first after 45 years, spread and before long,

hundreds of people came to see the reptile.

 

The animal was then sent to a fisheries centre in Pulau Sayap, Kedah,

where it was kept in a 40-tonne tank and fed fish and seaweed for 67

days.

 

Turtle Marine Ecosystem Centre (Tumec) director Kamaruddin Ibrahim

said in Kuala Terengganu that the turtle was weak when it was first

discovered.

 

Measuring 1.07 metres, the turtle was over 70 years old, making it the

oldest of the reptiles that had come to Malaysian shores.

 

Generally, green turtles weigh an average of 130kg and grow up to a

metre in length. It was released off Pulau Songsong in Kedah, an area

relatively safe from trawler fishing boats.

 

" Despite being one of the biggest green turtles we have seen in the

last decade, we did not want to keep it confined. We tagged it to

monitor its whereabouts, " he added.