PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium announced Wednesday that its 2-year-old loggerhead sea turtle will be released back into the ocean.
“We are excited and sad at the same time,” says Josie Romasco, PPG Aquarium aquarist. “Helping them grow and survive on their own is the ultimate reward for the work that we do, but you also get to know these turtles, and you miss them.”
Zoo officials said the goal when sea turtles such as Harold arrive as tiny hatchlings is to give them a fighting chance to make it back to their natural habitat.
The Pittsburgh Zoo joins the North Carolina Aquarium, along with other facilities, in releasing sea turtles into the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf Stream.
The group takes a boat out about 30 to 40 miles to reach the Gulf Stream, and then aquarists gently lower the turtles into the water and watch them swim away.
All contact is not lost, because many of the sea turtles are equipped with transmitters that send email alerts indicating where the sea turtle has traveled.
“Ghostbuster, a loggerhead sea turtle that we raised as a hatchling, was released two years ago and transmitted for 625 days, which is incredible. He is quite the little traveler,” says Romasco. “I love getting email updates as to where he has journeyed. It is like keeping in touch through email.”
Harold will be fitted with a transmitter, which costs about $3,000 and was purchased through the support of the PPG Sustainability and Conservation Fund, officials said.