Tuesday, September 22, 2009

let my turtles go

Today was the big day for 4 turtles who had been hospitalised at the Michmoret hospital for sick Turtles.
About a month ago Yoav and Shahar brought a sick and listless turtle back from their paddle. They had found him floating around just outside the fishing village of Jasser A Zarka, north of Ceaserea.
Zohar quickly took charge and delivered him/her, not quite sure.. to the hospital where they nursed it back to health.It was diagnosed as having post traumatic stress syndrome probably after being caught in a fishing net and then released.
Today we were privileged to be the release team and together with 3 others, it was set free in the sea about a mile and a half from the shore.
I carried one of them in a plastic box on the deck of my kayak, and I swear that he knew what was waiting for him. At first he didn't move at all, but as we began to paddle and feel the swell of the sea he became more and more active and tried to climb out of his box.
We were accompanied by a team of kayakers from our Optimist Kayak club who cheered and applauded as the turtles were released one by one.
Eventually we reached the release spot and let them go, they are amazingly fast swimmers and as soon as they were able they just swam away into the deep as quickly as they could.
The photos and video were taken by Vered and Rei, fearless swimmers around the kayaks as the turtles were released.
I have been told that these creatures can give a nasty bite if so inclined so its best to keep fingers and other vital organs out of harms way.

4 comments:

זהר נבון said...

Steve. Thank you!! It was an exciting morning- not only for the Turtles... watching your blog helps and will help to keep the memory alive!

avital said...

It is beautifull - tight thing to do!!!
Watching you from San Francisco-
Be good until I am coming back-
Much love and Happy new year Avital.

Unknown said...

Beautiful, wonderful to see! Thanks for posting.

Silbs said...

Now, that's a Mitzvah!