Five friends from Stirling High School went to the East London Aquarium to celebrate a birthday and left vowing to raise funds for washed-up turtles in need; months later have raised over R45,000 towards this cause.
Best friends Michaela de Abreu, Olivia Smallie, Marin Vine, Libby Caswell and Olivia Berndt were moved by the plight of 120 washed-up loggerhead turtle hatchlings along Eastern Cape beaches.
Conditions along the coast near Mozambique resulted in high winds and seas, washing the hatchlings off course.
The hatchlings which were laid in November last year, were only three months old before they washed up on shore and as a result, their care and rehabilitation has been costly. The aquarium has been caring for 25 of these turtles since then, and will do so until November, when warmer currents are available to release the hatchlings back into the sea.
To enable their development, costly measures must be put in place. The hatchlings’ water temperature must remain between 20-24°C to encourage feeding, and they cannot be fed any fish outside of hake, because other types of fish are too fatty and may inhibit their development.
They are also need to be kept in close proximity to UV light to stimulate vitamin D production.
Michaela, Olivia, Marin, Libby and Olivia decided to host an auction and raffle for the turtles initially, with the goal to raise R4,000.
However, their determined efforts and the public’s support enabled them to raise over 10 times more, which was handed over earlier this month to the Friends of EL Aquarium’s Ocean Lifeline project.
Olivia said: “Michaela volunteers at the aquarium every Sunday and helps whenever she can.
“She invited us to her birthday party, where we did a clean-up of the beach and the aquarium and listened to Siani Tinley give a speech about the baby loggerhead turtles and the help needed to rehabilitate them.
“We charged R120 and R180 for children and adult tickets respectively. We had an auction and a raffle as well as a few other activities that helped us raise funds.
“Before, we all thought that we couldn’t accomplish much, or change things.
“This event has shown us how one person or a group of people, can change the world for the better.
“We hope that the money we raised will go towards paying for hake because we don’t want to feed the turtles oily fish and spoil them because they will become fussy, and we hope the funds will assist with fuel and equipment.”
Tinley said the funds would go towards procuring equipment that would be shared between EL Aquarium and Gqeberha’s Bayworld as the care of the hatchlings was a joint project between both aquariums. Tinley encourages civil society to be mindful of behaviours on public beaches that could compromise the safety of the turtles, including littering.
Litter can wash into the sea and mistakenly be eaten by hatchlings which confuse the plastic for food.
The five pupils hope to continue contributing towards local charitable endeavours. Olivia said: “I am interested in helping abandoned babies, like King’s Children’s Home or African Angels; however, Michaela will always want to help the animals and the earth.
“She is looking at cleaning up beaches and at ways to help the SPCA, which is facing closure.”
