|
|
Turtle Dave is dead
|
The celebrity turtle resident of Egypt's Ras Mohammed, who survived major injury from a boat but never let it affect his friendship with divers, has died.
|
|
Dave, as he became known, has to have been Egypt's, perhaps the world's, most famous turtle - well, excluding the Mutant Ninjas.
Dave got a bit too close to a boat propeller last December and suffered a nasty cut through the top of his shell and into his back flesh.
The story of his rescue, patching up and rehabilitation by a dedicated team of dive professionals, marine biologists and others, centred on Sharm El Sheikh's Red Sea Diving College, was well documented by Diver magazine and other diving press.
Since Dave's successful release back into the sea about five months ago, he was doing well. The glass fibre patch fitted to his shell seemed to be working, and regular sightings were reported.
Red Sea Diving College set up a monitoring programme encouraging divers who came across Dave to submit comments and any photographs, so that his progress could be followed as closely as possible.
Sadly, it emerged that Dave was found dead two days ago.
According to a spokesman for the Sharm-based Red Sea Turtles Project, set up since Dave's release to identity the area's turtle breeding areas and help develop effective plans for their protection, Dave was recovered from the sea and a dissectomy performed.
Red Sea Turtles Project is 'waiting for the results to understand the cause of death'. It wishes to thank 'all of you that have rescued, looked after, reported and cared about Dave'.
|
Start a Forum discussion on this topic
|
Archive | 
