Turtles

Taka is an Eastern Pacific green turtles are also referred to as black sea turtles and native to waters near Costa Rica and the Galápagos Islands, which means Taka is a long way from home! This species is classified as endangered, with populations decreasing due to overfishing and plastic pollution.

Taka was found at Takapuna Beach in May 2020, he was suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and low body temperature.

Abbey

Abbey is a sub-adult with a shell size of 62cm.  Abbey came to us with a large wound on one of her flippers. Unfortunately, the bone became infected and the flipper had to be amputated to stop the infection from spreading. Abbey is currently recovering in Turtle Bay and, pending veterinary checks, will be released back to the wild despite her missing flipper.

The smallest of our loggerheads, Puck, is still in the quarantine area of our Turtle Hospital. Puck was found on Ninety Mile Beach, dehydrated and covered in barnacles. Although now rehydrated and cleaned-up, Puck is far too small to go into Turtle Bay and will spend some extra time in our back-of-house area growing bigger and stronger.

Kibou

This juvenile loggerhead was found washed up on Muriwai Beach with a bad lung infection in October 2019. Luckily, with the help of the Department of Conservation and Auckland Zoo, we have been able to clear up this infection, and gain an impressive 13kgs ahead of his release.

Kibou was released in March 2021. Find out about the release here. 

Toby

Toby a young green sea turtle found outside Whangarei in July 2018. Despite his small size, Toby is packed full of attitude and spends most of his time scratching his back against his favourite rock in his Turtle Rescue display.

Toby was release off the coast of Tutukaka in March 2019.

Find out more about the release here.

Jaxon

Jaxon the loggerhead turtle who has been stealing the hearts of the team since his arrival in an ice-cream container in October 2017. Jaxon was found stranded at 90 Mile Beach with a severe lung infection. Following several weeks of treatment, Jaxon regained his attitude and size, growing from 1.89 kg to a healthy 7.32 kg.

Jaxon was released together with Toby in March 2019.

Find out more about the release here.

Toby

Calvin arrived the Turtle Rehabilitation Centre in November 2018, after he was rescued in the far north.

At the time of his rescue, Calvin was in a worse condition of any turtle cared for at the aquarium, weighing just 11kg, but after 14 months of continuous monitoring and rehabilitation, he was finally well enough to be released back to its natural habitat.

Calvin was release into the ocean at Rangiputa Beach in March 2020.

Find out more about the release here.