A new life for Ganany.
It was a very emotional moment this morning aboard Race for Water when the team from the Te mana o te moana association arrived with Ganany, a green sea turtle measuring 30 centimetres long and weighing in at 6 kilos. The first day of the rest of Ganany’s life begins today because, for the very first time, the turtle will swim around in complete freedom in the waters of the Pacific! In this way, offshore of Cook’s Bay, Marco Simeoni and Doctor Cécile Gaspard delicately laid the turtle on the water from the float of Race for Water, before watching her dive down and head out into the big blue…
The aim of this offshore release is to enable Ganany to migrate, most certainly towards Fiji, where she’ll feed, before returning to French Polynesia when she is sexually mature in around fifteen years’ time, during the egg-laying season.
Ganany’s story
This turtle was born on 9 March 2017 and was recovered three days after she emerged by the Te mana o te moana association created in 2004 by Doctor Cécile Gaspard.
Ganany was very weak at her birth, but she was lucky enough to survive in contrast to a significant number of her fellow creatures (survival rate 1/1,000). Indeed, her yolk sac, which enables her to feed a few days after her birth, was wide open. Taken into care by the sea turtle clinic, which accommodates sick, injured or mutilated turtles, Ganany spent a year and a half in a natural protected environment where she received daily attention. Since the creation of the clinic, over 400 turtles have been collected up, 180 of which have been able to be released.
On the right road now, Ganany has the freedom to swim towards distant horizons, but unfortunately there is also the risk of encountering predators and marine waste, including plastic, which we hope she won’t ingest…