Bob the turtle has swum over 3 000km back to Cape waters after his return to the sea after spending eight years at the Two Oceans Aquarium.
By: Garrin Lambley
Bob the green sea turtle had, at the end of March, been in the ocean for 63 days since his much-publicised return to the sea after spending eight years at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town.
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In that time, he had managed to swim 3 009km from the KwaZulu-Natal coast where he was released, and at last update, was 190km offshore of Cape Town.
Prior to his release, Bob was fitted with four tags to help track his movements.
Talitha Noble monitors Bob’s travels and is responsible for detailing his journey.
The latest update – which can be viewed here – was the 10th since his journey started.
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Noble wrote: 63 days ago, Bob was being driven through sugar cane fields, carried down a hot beach, and tasting wild salt water for the first time in 8 years!
What an incredible 63 days of adventuring it has been. Bob has travelled 3 009 km in those days – almost the same distance as a flight from Cape Town to Rwanda.
His speed has averaged about 49km/day, but on some of his fastest days in the Agulhas current, he reached speeds of about 150km/day.
Bob has passed about 24 Marine Protected Areas. Some of these include the Southeast Atlantic Seamounts, where enormous underwater mountains provide biological hotspots, the Browns Bank Corals, where bottlebrush soft corals thrive, and Dwesa-Cwebe, a nursery ground for white steenbras.
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For 46 days of his travels, Bob stayed within the boundary of the continental shelf, experiencing depths of a few hundred metres. Then, in the last two weeks, Bob ventured into truly deep water. Now, he is thriving in waters thousands of metres deep!
After his release, Bob moseyed around in water temperatures of about 28 degrees Celsius and, as he got closer to the Cape, is now in waters of about 20 degrees Celsius.
Bob’s tag has sent us 685 transmissions so far! In the last few weeks, he made his way back to the Western Cape. Most recently, he was enjoying the waters 190km offshore from Cape Town!
It’s been an exciting two months of tracking, and we cannot wait for many more (fingers crossed that his tags stay on!).
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Bob’s stats:
Days since release: 63
Distance travelled: 3 009km
Distance from shore: 190km
Water temperature: 20 degrees Celsius
Nearest town: Cape Town
Water Depth: 3 900m
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