Past Turtles
Crush and dude
Crush and Dude were 2 juvenile green turtles both found in September 2003. Crush was found at Ahipara beach near Kaitaia, while Dude washed up at Muriwai Beach. Both Turtles were very skinny, dehydrated and suffering from cold shock on arrival, and therefore welcomed our warm tanks and high quality fish. They enjoyed this throughout the summer until the time came to release them in April 2004. They were both satellite tagged and released on the 21st of April 2004 up at the Kermadec Islands, north of New Zealand.
Kelly, Mahuta and Meola
These 3 juvenile turtles came to Kelly Tarlton’s between April 06 and July 07. Meola had a fishing hook lodged in her throat that had to be removed, while Kelly and Mahuta were both under weight, dehydrated and weak. All 3 turtles responded very well to treatment and thrived in the fish tank where they harassed our divers during the feeds! On the 9th of April 2008, all 3 turtles were successfully released at the Poor Knights Islands to hopefully go on and expand their species population.
Tarly
Tarly (named after Kelly Tarlton by a ‘turtletopia’ competition winner) was a large female Loggerhead turtle that came to the aquarium on the 27th of November 2007 after being washed up at a beach near Dargaville. Tarly was incredibly underweight considering her size, weighing only 47kgs. However with lots of feeding and exercise in our main fish tank, she gained 35.5kgs in our care, weighing an incredible 82.5kgs when it was time to be released! Tarly was fitted with a satellite transmitter tag and released at the Poor Knights Islands on the 29th of January 2009. The transmitter has recently gone off air, with the last transmission received on the 19th April 2010 (446 days after deploying). In that time she had covered a remarkable 10,843km. To view Tarly’s full journey visit www.sirtrack.com/tarly.asp.
Hawkesbill (Hawksby)
This beautiful little turtle was brought to Kelly Tarlton’s in January of 2008 after being found floating in Opito Bay, Coromandel. Floating is a problem for turtles as it means they are not only at risk of been hit by boats, but they also expending all their energy attempting to dive deep to get food. After a course of antibiotics, Hawksby sunk to the bottom, and later got transferred to our main fish tank where her weight doubled and she was able to make a full recovery! Hawksby was released at the Poor Knights Islands on the 18th March 2010.
Adult Green Turtle (Cessil)
On the 4th of November 2008, Kelly Tarlton’s received a large adult Green Turtle that had been washed up at Bayleys Beach near Dargaville. The Green Turtle was sighted 5 days earlier, and had been out of water for a substantial period of time. Once brought in, he was given a course of antibiotics for a buoyancy ailment that was causing him to float. We were then presented with the problem of feeding this Green Turtle as he was not eating for the first few months of his arrival. Daily trips were made to collect sea grass to entice the turtle to eat, which seemed to do the trick. Shortly after this he started accepting squid and fish as well. Cessil the Green Turtle, as it was later named has since recovered and was released on the 30th March 2010 on the West Coast, north of Dargaville. Click here to view his recent activity.
