A group of Cape Town swimmers will soon take on the icy Atlantic for more than just the challenge, diving in to make a difference for some of the ocean’s most vulnerable creatures.
Their journey from Robben Island to Granger Bay is about more than reaching the shore - it is about giving injured and stranded sea turtles a second chance at life.
The Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation’s fundraising swim, taking place from Tuesday, April 14 to Tuesday, April 28, aims to support the rescue and rehabilitation of sea turtles, raise awareness about threats facing our oceans, and help build a new Sea Turtle Hospital for the future.
Led by the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation, the initiative aims to highlight the crucial work of its Turtle Conservation Centre and a vision to build a dedicated sea turtle hospital for the future.
Speaking to CapeTowner, Talitha Noble-Trull, conservation manager at the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation, pointed out that running a programme like that is expensive and takes a lot of resources, which is why they are putting themselves in the “flippers and the shoes of our turtles by swimming to raise money for their conservation."
She shared that the route they are doing is symbolic, from Robben Island to Granger Bay, because it’s taking them to the site of the planned new sea turtle hospital – a new facility that they're planning to build in the next few years with the V&A Waterfront.
“We want to swim so that we can create a space for them in the new centre that we're going to be building in Granger Bay that is able to host more sea turtles and able to showcase the work to more people. We're also swimming to raise awareness about the threats that sea turtles face in the ocean. Sea turtles are all endangered and threatened with extinction because of the impacts of humans,” she said.
Ms Noble-Trull added that protecting turtles goes beyond a single species: “It’s not just the sea turtle we’re worried about, but it’s the ocean and how important that home is to not only the animals that live in it but also to us as humans.”
She shared that at the heart of this initiative is resilience, something embodied by Kai, a rehabilitated turtle nearing release. His journey, she shared, reflects resilience and bravery, qualities the swimmers hope to carry with them across the open water.
“Kai is a loggerhead sea turtle; he is six years old, and he's been with us for six years. He arrived as a little baby turtle with really severe buoyancy issues and really struggling, and has had a really long, difficult rehabilitation. But now he is at a point where, after all of those years of care and of hard work both from the team and from Kai, he is now almost ready to be returned back into the sea.”
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