Baby turtles rescued from seaweed grasp
Not seeing himself as a hero in anyway but just doing his job and having a mind for community and his understanding and value of sea life to the continued existence of the island he knows as home, Mr Rondel R. Smith related to this news site how he came to save the lives of some 13 sea turtles.
“I work with Parks (National Parks Trust), so I usually check around the areas where the seaweeds are and I saw one and then two turtles so I decided to check further to see if there were any other and as I moved along I saw another so I went and borrowed a dingy and paddled through the seaweed and I ended up with thirteen baby turtles,” Mr Smith recalled.
In fact, a total of eighteen (18) baby turtles were found but sadly five were not rescued early enough. “They had to have been recently hatched; all of them but the five were already dead.”
Mr Smith said he informed the management of National Parks Trust of the encounter.
As for the 13 live turtles, Mr Smith said he took them to a location where there was no seaweed and where he thought they had a fighting chance at survival and released them back into the sea.
The commendable act was brought to the attention of this news site by another public spirited man who chose not to be named but said he did it to encourage others to do what bit they can in any way as the territory tries to grapple with the influx of the dreaded sargassum seaweed at this time.
Anegada is said to be hard hit with the invasion of seaweed and, according to fishermen, fishing activities are being affected as a number of boats are trapped at the fisherman’s dock.
“The seaweed invade the whole area so you can’t bring your boat in here because the seaweed would block up your propeller and mess up your engine,” said the fisherman. As for those whose boats are already in the dock he said, “Those fishermen can’t get their boats out because they can’t start their engine and you don’t want to walk in the water because God knows what kind of bacteria would be in this seaweed that can probably penetrate your skin.”
The fisherman said he and Mr Smith are in the process of strategising a clean-up exercise especially in areas where the fishermen have to traverse to get their boats in and out of the dock.
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