\n<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen Bulwal Bilima (BB for short) first arrived at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, she, or possibly he, was lethargic, badly constipated and dehydrated. Named \u201cstrong turtle\u201d in the Aboriginal Dhurga language of the Yuin people on whose land it was found, the tiny 110g loggerhead hatchling, no bigger than a bar of soap, had a fight on its hands.<\/p>\n The baby turtle was found stranded in New South Wales\u2019s Booderee national park last April, much further south than the usual hatching grounds. After days of feeding on squid, sardines and marine vitamins, BB, whose sex cannot be determined until it is fully mature, revived.<\/p>\n Through winter, BB remained in heated rehabilitation pools to thermoregulate while offshore waters remained too cold. Then last month, it was finally fitted with a satellite tracker and released from Lord Howe Island, about 700km north-east of Sydney.<\/p>\n For conservationists, the rescue was about more than saving the life of one turtle. It was a fresh warning that warming seas are forcing species into new territories.<\/p>\n The East Australian Current is strengthening and pushing warmer waters further south. Marine species once largely confined to Queensland, including endangered loggerhead turtles, are now turning up much further south in New South Wales \u2013 in places they have rarely been recorded before.<\/p>\n <\/span>BB is released from rehabilitation \u2013 video<\/span><\/p>\n For Taronga\u2019s scientists, those shifts demand a new strategy. Using satellite trackers and new tagging techniques, they are following both rehabilitated and wild turtles\u2019 movements in real time. The goal is to anticipate where turtles will move next and which emerging migration corridors may need protection in the years to come.<\/p>\n Loggerheads, one of the world\u2019s seven sea turtle species, are found worldwide. They can live up to 80 years, reach 1.2 metres in length and weigh up to 180kg (28 stone). Recognisable by their blocky heads, reddish-brown shells and powerful jaws, they have complex migratory patterns, often spending decades in the open ocean before returning to their natal beaches to nest.<\/p>\n Phoebe Meagher, a conservation officer who works on Taronga\u2019s turtle tagging project, says their southward shift raises urgent conservation concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got lots of turtles nesting down in New South Wales, which they never used to do, and so the question is, what does this mean for the conservation of the species? It\u2019s not about where the turtles live now, it\u2019s about where a turtle is going to live in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Taronga conservation biologist Dr Jo Day and conservation officer Dr Phoebe Meagher release a tagged green turtle into the sea.<\/span><\/p>\n The baseline data needed to help scientists work this out is scarce. \u201cNothing is known about marine turtles in New South Wales. In fact, there is so little information that the Commonwealth maps of biologically important areas for marine species had zero data points for marine turtles in New South Wales,\u201d Meagher says, referring to regions designated for marine protection.<\/p>\n Taronga\u2019s tagging project aims to close that gap and inform wildlife management of future habitat protections strategies and areas.<\/p>\n double quotation markWe can\u2019t keep it in captivity. It is the right thing to do. But you really hope that it\u2019s not just a morsel for somethingKimberly Vinette Herrin, Taronga Zoo<\/p>\n Often called sentinels of climate change, turtles are highly sensitive to environmental shifts. Sand temperature determines hatchling sex: cooler sand produces males, hotter sand, females. As turtles move south, mismatches between ocean and sand temperatures could skew sex ratios or reduce survival.<\/p>\n Intensifying currents may also alter habitat suitability, increase disease risk and push turtles closer to people \u2013 compounding uncertainty for already threatened species.<\/p>\n Kimberly Vinette Herrin, a veterinary officer at Taronga who rehabilitated and released BB, has seen those consequences first-hand. \u201cWe see a lot more impact from humans \u2026 [such as] fishing lines, boat strikes, plastic ingestion,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Entanglement can lead to amputated flippers and embedded hooks. Changing migratory patterns can also expose turtles to unfamiliar pathogens.<\/p>\n <\/span>BB is given a final health check by Taronga wildlife hospital vet Kimberly Vinette Herrin before being released.<\/span><\/p>\n As BB regained strength, Herrin\u2019s team monitored sea temperatures and foraging conditions around Lord Howe Island, a remote Unesco-listed volcanic remnant close to the East Australian Current.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to be careful about putting BB out in really cold temperatures that might not be so suitable,\u201d says Herrin. \u201cWe always want it to be a little bit over 20C, so they [turtles] have the best chance of doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n In mid-February, BB passed a final health check. A small satellite tracker was secured to its shell with epoxy and fibreglass, and Herrin flew with the team to the island for the release into the current.<\/p>\n <\/span> BB is rehabilitated in heated pools \u2013 video<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like your child because you had it for a year. We can\u2019t keep it in captivity. It is the right thing to do. But you really hope that it\u2019s not just a morsel for something,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n For two days after release, BB\u2019s tracker pinged regularly. Then it went silent.<\/p>\n \u201cI was horrified, absolutely horrified,\u201d Herrin says. \u201cBut then the next day, there\u2019s a track. It had gone way up north and then it started coming back around. So I think it\u2019s starting to find and get into the current.\u201d<\/p>\n BB is one of about 21 turtles tracked by Taronga conservationists along the New South Wales coast \u2013 including 16 green turtles, three loggerheads and two hawksbills. Unlike the shallows of Queensland where researchers can often tag turtles while standing, tagging the southward-moving turtles in New South Wales\u2019s deeper and low-visibility waters has required new methods.<\/p>\n <\/span>The tracks of loggerhead turtles overlaid on top of ocean currents off the coast of New South Wales.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf we find a turtle resting, they tend to tuck themselves under ledges. And if we can catch the resting turtles, it\u2019s actually a much less stressful capture because they\u2019re half asleep. Developing that method has been one of our biggest wins,\u201d Meagher says.<\/p>\n For larger loggerheads, researchers have used mesh nets secured to a boat, sliding them beneath turtles to lift them gently on board.<\/p>\n For Herrin, who has rehabilitated and released many turtles, the most powerful moments in the process remain the simplest.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they swim away and they don\u2019t look back, we know we\u2019ve done OK, so that\u2019s the best thanks that we can get,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Bulwal Bilima (BB for short) first arrived at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, she, or possibly he, was lethargic, badly constipated and dehydrated. Named \u201cstrong turtle\u201d in the Aboriginal Dhurga language of the Yuin people on whose land it was found, the tiny 110g loggerhead hatchling, no bigger than a bar of soap, had<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[2059,631,23214,96,22607,384,7304,1269,2315,20771,2560],"class_list":{"0":"post-46085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-australian","9":"tag-baby","10":"tag-constipated","11":"tag-lost","12":"tag-reptiles","13":"tag-scientists","14":"tag-seas","15":"tag-tiny","16":"tag-told","17":"tag-turtle","18":"tag-warming"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}