It was the day before the Easter break and we had a lovely day out on the water with a trip to Tea Gardens and an attempt to catch some fish over near Shoal Bay. We were quite late returning and noticed a floating object close to the boats moored off oyster lease OL86/140. Closer examination indicated it was a dead turtle. I am not an expert on turtle identification, but I think it was a green turtle.
With the holiday period about to start, the turtle was a navigation hazard. It was very heavy and smelly and we did not want to take it ashore. In the end, we took it right up Bundabah Creek and deposited it in the mangroves. Hopefully the crabs had a good feast.
We examined the turtle and there were no obvious injuries which could have caused its death. Over the years we have seen a few other dead turtles in Cove waters and one very sick loggerhead making its way towards Bundabah Creek. I suspect boat strike is a problem as well as ingesting rubbish(plastic) by mistake.
I might add that we also saw a pod of dolphins with at least two babies in the pod. We were lucky enough to see one of the baby dolphins playing and it actually breeched- all this just south of OL86/140 and quite close to shore.
