A little ocean wonder (BARNEY) gets rescued at Redhead
At present the seas off our coasts are huge due to the bad weather conditions it is weather like this that we see many marine creatures coming to grief and landing up stranded on our beaches such a oceanic sea birds and marine sea turtles.
I received a call today 24th May from NATF Phone operator Robyn that a chap called Mark had found a tiny marine sea turtle on Redhead Beach and wanted help. I called Mark to find it was a hatchling sea turtle. I said I would get it from him he asked where would it go I said I would assess it and take it down to Wildlife Clinic at Taronga he said I could do that as he worked in Sydney and was going down to start work at 5 pm and would be happy to help me by taking it down today for me! I was delighted.
After talking Mark through how to handle and house our wee little one and speaking with Wildlife Clinic staff who, from Mark’s photos, identified it as an endangered loggerhead hatchling which brought great excitement to us all. It was decided Mark would start the journey to the Wildlife Clinic with newly named ‘Barney’. Mark called me once he arrived at the wildlife clinic to report he had dropped off Barney and he was in the safe hands of Clinic staff.
We now need to wait and hope Barney will be OK and recover well. What a wonderful happy ending to what could have been a disaster. Barney was so lucky that Mark had decided to go walking along the beach and was lucky enough to be found by him. It was great that Mark cared so much for one little marine sea turtle which sat in palm of his big hand.
Barney will hopefully grow to a very large creature and could live for up to 40 years.
I am so grateful to Mark – he is my hero and Barney’s life saver!
Audrey Koosmen,
Marine Turtle Coordinator
For NATF Inc. May 2013