Cabbage Tree Bay: Desperate plea to save green sea turtles found with fatal conditions
Rescuers are relying on the community to help pay for vet bills and food to rehabilitate two green sea turtles found at Cabbage Tree Bay reserve in Manly with “fatal” conditions.
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A group of free divers from Manly have made a desperate plea for community support as they try to raise funds to save sick green sea turtles on behalf of a marine rescue organisation.
Divers from Oceania Synergy were taking pictures when they noticed a pink substance covering a turtle named Billie at Cabbage Tree Bay Reserve and they contacted Australian Seabird Rescue.
The organisation travelled from the Central Coast and took Billie in for care and treatment. He was diagnosed with a “fatal” condition called septicaemia and has been prescribed antibiotics.
It’s still unknown what caused the life threatening condition but antibiotics can cost $220 per dose and it can take a minimum period of three to six for green sea turtles to recover.
Oceania Synergy divers set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for vet bills and food after they were told Australian Seabird Rescue (ASR) didn’t have the funds.
“Vet bills and X-rays cost around $300 and Billie will also need 300-500g of food daily to support her recovery. This also adds to the cost since her diet is comprised of prawns, oily fish and squid,” ASR volunteer Cathy Gilmore said.
So far $1864 has been raised for Billie which will cover his bills for now, with extra donations going towards a green sea turtle named Ella who was also rescued from Cabbage Tree Bay earlier this year.
Ella has been in the care of Australia Seabird Rescue since March. She was also suffering from septicaemia and pneumonia which was caused from swallowing a balloon with a 2.5m piece of string attached.
Speaking to the Manly Daily back in April, Ms Gilmore said Ella the turtle had a “big fight on her hands”.
“It would have been very painful for her. We didn’t even know she’d swallowed the balloon until she pooped it out. She’s got a really serious infection.”
Billie and Ella are currently being treated by ASR carer Rob Olive who provided an update.
“It can take up to three weeks for something to go out of their digestion track so we don’t know if Billie has ingested something like Ella,” Mr Olive said.
“Ella will probably go for another check up in mid July, she’s still recovering”.
He said donations will save their lives.
“Septicaemia is by poisoning so if the animal is not treated it will die so it is fatal.
“For our turtle hospital up north COVID-19 has impacted us. It is hard because people don’t have as much money to spend but fundraising has always been a challenge for marine life.
“With the bushfires that happened there’s a lot of exposure for those animals. The marine environment has been suffering from a long time with the warming ocean temperatures and from plastic which kills tens of thousands of sea animals every year.”
Oceania Synergy is a non for profit organisation which was established to protest Cabbage Tree Bay reserve.
“We want to raise awareness for Cabbage Tree Bay, it’s a place that people should be looking after and where marine life should thrive, not where turtles are getting sick because they are swallowing balloons,” volunteer Tamila Melo said.
More information on the GoFundMe page here.