Win a chance to release a turtle!

If you live in the Caymans, you could win a chance to release a turtle during the Cayman Turtle Farm/Boatswain’s Beach 27th annual turtle release on Friday, November 16th. Apparently, they’ve been doing this since the 1980’s and have released over 31,000 turtles into the wild. I think that’s absolutely amazing.

Due to the commercial harvesting of sea turtles in the Caymans, a population that at one time was abundant is now almost extinct. Where once there were so many turtles, that even Christoper Columbus dubbed the Cayman Islands with the name “Las Tortugas”, there are now less than 30 adult female green sea turtles nesting there each year.

Farm raised turtles are being tagged and released into the wild with successful results. The data returned by the taggin is showing that they are following the migration patterns of wild turtles, allowing them to adapt to their new environment and potentially reproduce to increase the population of sea turtles. This is the reason why the turtle release is such a great thing!

Now wouldn’t that be neat if more coastal turtle rescue hubs did just the same? I would jump at this chance in a heartbeat! Wouldn’t you?