SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The government confirmed that young sea turtles released on Jeju Island last September have safely settled on the coast of Vietnam.
The turtles in question are 4-year-old sea turtles bred through captive propagation in 2017 by the South Korean government.
Sea turtles hatch in Vietnam, and typically come to the coast of the Korean peninsula by the age of 20 to 30 to spawn.
These 4-year-old sea turtles, born in South Korea, have been looking for a new place to settle, until they found a new home in Vietnam, 3,847 kilometers away from the Korean peninsula.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries joined hands with Hanwha Aqua Planet Yeosu in 2016 to successfully breed sea turtles.
Since then, the government has artificially bred 96 sea turtles and eight hawksbill sea turtles to release them to the sea.
The ministry attached identification tags to all turtles before release to observe how well they’d settle in the wild. Among them, 15 turtles were also fitted with satellite tracking devices to follow their movement.
Image Credit: Yonhap / photonews@koreabizwire.com
