Lost & Found
Early in the morning on Thursday 23 April I came across a young sea turtle on Dee Why Beach, about
400 metres north of the Surf Club. Very heavy seas were running and he/she had been washed ashore.
(For convenience, in the rest of this article I will make the presumption of he).
My initial reaction was that the little turtle (he was about as big as my hand) was dead. However,
when I scooped him up in a handful of wet sand he moved his head and flippers. A woman then
appeared and said she had tried putting him back in the sea a few minutes earlier but he had been
washed ashore again.
I purloined a bucket from the Surf Club, put some sea water in it plus some sand to make a beach, and
took him home. On ringing them, WIRES advised me to put him back in the sea at low tide but I
knew that this would be useless as the seas were huge. I tried Manly Oceanworld but could only leave
a recorded message. Then, an hour or so later, when I gave the now very still little turtle some gentle
prods with a stick, there was no sign of life. Sadly, he had expired.
Another couple of hours later Oceanworld rang and I had to tell them that I had bothered them
unnecessarily as the turtle had died. They suggested that I ring National Parks as they keep a register
of strandings of various sea creatures. I did this and they were grateful, asking for details of size,
apparent condition, where found, etc. I then somewhat sadly put the bucket with the dead little turtle
out on the verandah (there was by now a slight "fishy" smell), intending to bury him or return him to
the sea the next morning.
Friday dawned and, after some discussion with Fran, we decided to make him a grave in our backyard,
rather than the probably more sensible alternative of returning his body to the sea. I put on a pair of
disposable gloves and picked him out of the bucket. Yes, you've guessed it. He immediately
protested and moved! He was still alive. Presumably he had collapsed the previous day from
exhaustion.
So back on the phone to Oceanworld and, yes, they would take him. Finally, a little over 24 hours
after I had found him, he was in the care of people who actually knew what they were doing. Their
immediate response was that he was very weak and his chances of survival might not be that good. I
can only hope that a night on our verandah in a bucket did not prove to have been his last straw.
P.S. I have often wondered how even adult turtles survive in rough seas. Having to come to the
surface regularly to breath would seem to be a major problem in such conditions. The image conjured
up for me is that of a large cake of soap being tossed about unmercifully by the waves. Yet they
apparently flourish in parts of the world where cyclones are quite common.
Richard Michell