An adult green turtle initially tagged and released in 2007 at Sale’imoa was found again and released from Malua Theological College on Wednesday.
Reverend Dr. Afereti Uili, Principal of Malua Theological College, had contacted the Ministry wanting to release one of the turtles that only had three flippers.
Responding to this request, the staff of Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment headed out to tag the green turtle which is now named “Malua”.
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Noting that the turtle had already been tagged, the Ministry traced its tag numbers R16494 and R16496 and found that it was previously caught by fishermen in 2007, tagged by the Ministry and released at Vaiala.
An additional tag was placed on the right back flipper to give the turtle three unique identification numbers before releasing it at Mulinu’u Wednesday morning.
Green turtles feed on seagrass and the best seagrass beds are found around Manono Island and the north-western coast of Upolu.
It is most likely that the green turtle was caught around the same area and placed in the pond sometime last year.
This is the third turtle that has been tagged from Malua Theological College and reencountered again.
The first was an adult male green turtle tagged in 2004 which was later caught alive in Kiribati in 2009. The second encounter was a hawksbill turtle tagged in 2006 and caught alive the following year 2007 in Vanuatu. Both turtles were released back into the wild.
The collaboration between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) and the Malua Theological College to tag and release turtles kept in their pond is an ongoing conservation effort that initially started in 2004.
The Ministry would like to urge the public to support the conservation efforts by reporting turtles that are accidentally caught in fishing nets or sold anywhere around the islands to MNRE.
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