The Portuguese Navy, through the Southern Maritime Zone Command, in association with Zoomarine and the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests, will return two sea turtles to the sea tomorrow, October 19th.
This operation will be carried out aboard the Rapid Inspection Boat NRP Argos, which is on commission in the South Maritime Zone, and will depart in the early morning from the Naval Support Point of Portimão to drop the two turtles several nautical miles from land.
In addition to previous initiatives, this collaboration between the Navy and Zoomarine will allow the “Jade” and “Jasão” turtles to return to their natural habitat after a few months of rehabilitation.
Jade e Already are are two copies of Caretta caretta (common turtle) and arrived at the Zoomarine rehabilitation center within a week, in early summer 2012.
«Both were found by sea professionals, off the Algarve coast, considerably apathetic and on the water surface – nothing strange to rehabilitators of this species, as they are events that occur naturally and frequently – because the sea is immense and unpredictable , and because it lives at the whim of the currents, the tides, the wind… and luck!” explains Élio Vicente, Science and Communication director at Zoomarine.
Sometimes, it is human interference (often due to activities related to fishing and leisure) that "implies a need to correct, in rehabilitation centers, the harm caused by ignorance, negligence or even deliberately" .
Parental care in these ancestral chelonians does not exist. Thus, they make the number their strength, being born in groups of tens and hundreds from each nest – and together they fight to ascend from it.
By moonlight they reach the sea and it is here that a marine journey begins that lasts for years and years... Some specialists call “lost years” those that juveniles pass, almost passively wandering through the oceans, until they reach sexual maturity and return to zones of origin. According to statistics, of these “lost years” and the thousands that are born each year on each spawning beach, very few dozen survive.
“Hence the importance of trying to save even two small representatives of a species – as is the case with Jasão and Jade», adds Élio Vicente.
The return will take place tomorrow, the 19th (Friday) several nautical miles off Portimão. But the final preparations for the return will begin that day, at 07:15 am, at Zoomarine's Porto d'Abrigo, from where the departure is scheduled, at 07:45 am, to the Naval Support Point of Portimão. Departure to the sea, in a Portuguese Navy Quick Surveillance Boat, will take place at 09:00 am.
As always, the support of the Southern Maritime Zone Command (Portuguese Navy) and the Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation (Ministry of Agriculture, Sea, Environment and Spatial Planning) will be essential, through, respectively, the availability of naval resources and associated crew, and legally required documentation.
The desire of these three entities is simple and clear: that these juveniles have many more “lost years” ahead of them. And that accidents on the way do not rob them of the opportunity to reproduce – which, in the case of females, will mean returning to their birthplace, in order to start a new cycle of life.
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