Sponsored Fish-Watch To Help Turtles at the National Sea Life Centre
The National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham is to stage a ‘sponsored fish count’ to raise funds for a new turtle rescue centre.
Any child under 16 who can persuade 20 or more people to sponsor them…will get free admission on Saturday, January 31st to count as many sea creatures as they can.
The youngster who raises the most cash will win a VIP trip for themselves and a parent or guardian, to Greek island Zakynthos.
That is where the new rescue facility is being built by wildlife group Earth, Sea and Sky, with the help of over €100,000 already raised by Sea Life centres across Europe.
Situated next to the island’s National Marine Park it is 80-per-cent complete…and it is hoped it will open in time for the annual influx of breeding sea turtles in the spring.
But more cash is urgently needed to pay for fittings, life-support systems and equipment.
“Some adult loggerhead turtles inevitably end up injured by boats or fishing gear as they gather in nearby Laganas Bay to mate,” said Birmingham Sra Life curator Graham Burrows.
“The new rescue centre will mean casualties no longer face a gruelling six hour journey to a rescue centre, in Athens.
“It will be manned by volunteers but will be dependent on donations to help cover running costs, food bills and veterinary bills for the foreseeable future,” he added.
Graham and his colleagues hope the sponsored fish count will provide a valuable pre-launch boost to help get the facility finished and fully equipped.
Five UK Sea Life centres are taking part, and the most successful UK fundraiser will fly to the island in May, where he or she will meet up with winners from six other countries to visit the new Centre and take a catamaran trip to see the turtles in the Bay.
Loggerheads make between 1,000 and 2,000 nests on the island every summer, but loss of prime nesting beaches to tourist development and the deaths of many hatchlings drawn to seafront lights instead of the sea, has caused numbers to decline steadily.
Earth, Sea and Sky founder Yannis Vardakastanis, the prime mover behind the rescue centre development, said that every injured turtle it manages to save and return to the wild could be crucial to the long-term survival of Mediterranean loggerheads.
The Sea Life network got behind the Rescue Centre project after helping to re-home two injured loggerheads whose injuries made a return to the wild impossible.
One of the two – brain-damaged female loggerhead Antiopi – is still enjoying a comfortable life in the ocean tank at Scarborough Sea Life Centre.
“To date, every injured turtle found on the island has had to be sent to Athens,” said Yannis. “It is a six-hour journey by sea and road, and many haven’t made it. All that will change when the new centre opens.”
Any youngster who would like to help can download the sponsor forms – which they must have authorised by a parent or guardian – from the Sea Life website www.sealifeeurope.com
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