Ascension : Ascension Divers Aid Hawksbill Turtle
Submitted by The Islander (Nathan Prince) 26.04.2007 (Article Archived on 10.05.2007)
A group of Atlantis Dive Club scuba divers which included Mal Moss, Winnie Ellick, Sarah Coverdale, Bernard Peterson and Shari Parkhill,
recently came across a Hawksbill turtle that unfortunately had a rather large fishing hook caught in her front right flipper. The hook also had a length of wire attached to it, which was already collecting debris. It was quickly decided that a little turtle first aid was required.
The dive leader, Mal, managed to catch the turtle, who put up a bit of a fight at first and then became quite docile. Shari unraveled the wire from the eye of the hook, aided by Winnie, a process which took a few minutes. Bernard and Sarah acted as photographers and recorded the entire operation. Removing the wire was necessary in order to pull the hook through with the least amount of damage. Finally, this was accomplished and the hook came through her flipper with some tugging.
The turtle had a tag and the number was recorded by the divers so the incident could be reported to the Ascension Island Conservation Office. It seems that turtle # RRG657 was actually “Anne”, a turtle originally tagged at Ascension on 07 February 2004. There is an ongoing program to tag and track Hawksbill turtles here on Ascension. “Anne” had been the third turtle tagged in this program. Hawksbill turtles do not nest on Ascension, and most Hawksbills spotted in the waters around Ascension are juveniles.
When “Anne” was released, she surprised everyone by not immediately swimming away. She floated for a moment, turned back to look at the divers, and then leisurely headed out into deeper waters. We like to think that she was saying “thanks”!
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