WP bycatch surprise.

[hornet]

If it was a female she could be 80 years old...

found this

"It takes several decades for adult sea turtles to reach sexual maturity. The mature turtles migrate, sometimes for thousands of miles, to reach breeding sites. Male and female turtles mate in the water, and the males return to deep sea to feed. For several weeks, female sea turtles alternate between mating in the water and laying their eggs on land. Before laying her eggs, a female turtle will dig a hole in the sand with her hind flippers. She covers it with sand and returns to the ocean. About two months pass for the eggs to incubate under the sand. Afterwards, the eggs hatch, generally at night to avoid predation, and the hatchlings crawl to the water. They then swim out to sea to begin their own cycle of maturing and reproducing. Sea turtles can continue this cycle until they are 80 years old."

[hangsta*]

wow thats so cool, :thumbsup:

[shazdoggg]

Wow, just when you think youve just about seen it all...someone catches a massive sea turtle in WP! That is pretty cool to have come across one in those circumstances. Would hate to know how many killed in nets!! Being so large Im guessing it took awhile to get in and what were you thinking it was before it surfaced?

[the pond]

thats awesome!

[PoddyMullet]

I've e-mailed the verifying Redmap scientist asking for an estimate on age, weight and sex if possible from the pics. I'll wait and see and report back if anything comes of it.

If anyone comes across one, apparently you should call the Melbourne Aquarium or Parks Vic and they can asses over the phone whether it should be released or they should collect it to rest it up, treat it, etc prior to being returned.

I also know of one years ago (early 80's from memory) that turned up on Vic Wests Coast, and another two that were captured a few years ago at Dromana prior to being treated, rested, and flown back north before being returned to the water. I guess the odd one turns up now and then.

As for the battle, I really had no idea what I was bringing in. My float bobbed continuously, but there was no initial run (with obvious weight). At first I was thinking a Giller (I thought I'd spied a shark dorsal), and once on land I saw a flipper so thought maybe a young seal. When I was coming towards the shore he peeled off some line. He also did a few slow and unstoppable parallel runs to the shore line like a Smooth Ray, both when I was in the yak and when I was landbasing it through the shallows. All up, given it was about a 1km yak trip with maybe 200m of line to retrieve landbased, I guess it was an hour or more all up. But I wasn't rushing.

Cheers all!

[Nude up]

All that talk of decades to reach sexual maturity sounds like my wife, anyway after being at bermie the other week we went to the bunga canyons and the water temp was 26 degrees it would be easy for one turtle to make his way south on one of these hot pockets of currents