The incredible journey of a loggerhead turtle named Yoshi 

Remember Crush and Squirt, the two turtles from Finding Nemo? In this 2003 American animation movie, this father-son duo helps the main character swim through the ocean to reach Sydney in Australia. You have already seen how skilfully these turtles swim through the ocean currents to get home after their breeding season. Today, we are going to talk about Yoshi, the loggerhead turtle who went on a fascinating adventure, from being rescued by a fishing boat crew, to spending 20 years in an aquarium and then to swifty adapt to the open ocean and swim over 34,000 km! This turtle’s adventure will make your mind boggle! 

What are loggerhead turtles?  
Before we learn about Yoshi, let’s see what loggerhead turtles are. These turtles are named after their large heads which support powerful jaws that can crush any hard-shelled prey such as clams and crustaceans. They measure up to 3 feet in length and weight over 131 kg and their sexual development can take up to 39 years! Another interesting fact about them is that the females lay their eggs in the same breeding locations they are born. They move to and from their favourite feeding and breeding areas multiple times throughout its life.  

Meet Yoshi, the famous loggerhead turtle! 
In 1997, a small, injured loggerhead sea turtle named Yoshi was rescued from the Indian Ocean by a Japanese fishing boat crew. They kept it onboard and cared for it like a beloved pet. In the same year, Two Oceans Aquarium, an aquarium located in Cape Town, South Africa, took Yoshi in its care. This adorable sea creature quickly won the hearts of the people in the aquarium, teaching them how to care for sea turtles and also helped them prepare for a turtle rescue, training and release programme. Yoshi, during her time in the aquarium, gained strength, weighing over 183 kg and became quite eye-catchy. She had her favourite sleeping places, food and even tickle spots! After about two decades, Two Oceans Aquarium bid Yoshi goodbye and began its satellite tagging programme, setting her free in the southwest of Hout Bay in South Africa.  

Yoshi’s training and her incredible journey! 
The satellite tagging programme of the Two Oceans Aquarium was part of their turtle rescue, training and release programme. In this programme, the captive fauna was tagged with tracking devices to help scientists monitor them after their release into the ocean. The turtles released successfully readjusted to life in the ocean after 2 years of treatments and care. Yoshi also became a part of this mission. However, she was only trained for 18 months to swim in open sea currents. But that did not stop her from reacclimatizing to the ocean. The team called her training ‘Yoshi tennis’ as she was made to do a 20-meter relay from one point to the other every day. She was released in the southwest of Houst Bay, in 2017. The tagging team believed she would ascend Southern Africa’s east coast as did other turtles but she caught them by surprise by heading west! By February 2019, she was swimming through the rich feeding region of the Southeast Atlantic Seamounts. From there, she moved directly towards Australia. This is no small journey. Yoshi had travelled an incredible distance of 34,000 km by December 2019, that is 46.5 km per day for 730 days in a row! What a powerful feat, wouldn’t you agree? Yoshi touched the Australian waters by the end of February 2020, reaching close to Port Sampson, a fishing community in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Her majestic swimming streak slowed down in the April of 2020.  

What is Yoshi doing now? 
Currently, Yoshi has become comfortable at the 220-km long, ‘Eighty Mile Beach’ between Port Hedland and Broome. She is now moving at a rate of only 12 kilometres per day and is clearly enjoying herself in this warm, friendly place full of large turtles and other marine life. ‘Biyandanga community’, the largest native group in Western Australia, takes care of this amazing visitor! Australia welcomed Yoshi with open arms! Can we confidently say that she is home? Is Yoshi possibly a South African loggerhead on a long vacation in Australia because she was saved closer to South Africa? However, it appears that this legend of a turtle has returned to her native homeland, Australia.