The cost of shark netting has proven too costly for a small NZ council putting an end to their shark meshing program.

You can read the full article here.

Sydney Aquarium took great pleasure in releasing 2 yellow bellied sea snakes back into the wild recently. After a period of rough ocean conditions, the snakes were washed up exhausted on separate beaches, and brought in by concerned public to Oceanworld Manly and Australian Reptile Park. Sydney Aquarium vet, Sam Gilchrist and keepers monitored the health of the snakes over a couple of weeks to ensure they received adequate nutrition and rest to recuperate from their ordeal, and be fit for release.

It's not unusual to see sea snakes in waters off Sydney. Although they are found in warmer conditions they can drift down on the EAC to cooler waters. You can find out more about these fascinating animals here.

Just days after Marina Tsamoulos, Senior Keeper at Oceanworld, Manly, returned from a turtle conference in Townsville last month, Oceanworld got a call from a couple of young men who were boating in Sydney Harbour who had come across a turtle that appeared to be struggling to dive.

As they got closer to her they could see that she had injuries across her back, which consisted of 3 straight cuts at regular distances, indicative of a boat strike. They managed to catch her and had called Oceanworld to see if they would be able to help her.

The men carefully wrapped her in a towel and boated over to the Oceanworld wharf. As they approached, with Oceanworld keepers waiting on the wharf for their arrival, one of the young men called out “I think she just took her last breath”.

Unfortunately the sub-adult green sea turtles injuries had become infected and her body just couldn’t fight anymore. Marina estimates that the injuries were probably a week or two old, and she said that the turtles neck and front flippers were also swollen with the infection. One of the injuries across her back had gone all the way through her shell, allowing infection to get into her system and exposing her internal organs.

Had she been brought in sooner, she might have been saved, although it would have been a tough and tricky ride and it would have taken a very long time to rehabilitate her.

So please tell everyone you know who owns a boat to go slow, look out for turtles, and if they hit something in the water, even if they think it was a log, to go back and check to make sure they haven’t hit a turtle.

Marina Tsamoulos, a senior keeper at Oceanworld in Manly, recently headed up to North Queensland for a turtle conference at Reef HQ in Townsville. The Conference was organised by the Sea Turtle Foundation after the increase in turtle strandings in QLD earlier in the year.

Marina tells us that the organisers expected a fairly small attendance, but over 87 professionals from all over Australia were there. All attendees were from organisations involved in turtle conservation, and many, like Marina, work directly with rescue turtles. While there, Marina took the opportunity to check out the turtle hospital at Reef HQ and get an idea of how they care for the turtles that they rescue. Many of you may have heard about Sea Biscuit, the juvenile green sea turtle who now lives at Oceanworld after being rescued of a beach in northern Sydney. Often here in Sydney we get hatchling turtles that get stranded on our beaches, which require less space to house. Up in Townsville, Reef HQ usually deals with sub-adult turtles, so their hospital is specially set up to accommodate turtles of their size.

The conference was a great way for these professionals to share their expertise with each other, and will now be an annual event. At Reef HQ they are expecting the increased number of stranded green sea turtles to continue, since the cyclone and flooding in QLD earlier in the year has wiped out much of their seagrass food source. (As adults green sea turtles become purely vegetarian and only eat seagrass and seaweed)