World Sea Turtle Day is a great occasion to reflect on what sea turtles mean to The Deep. This February we celebrated the five-year anniversary of our Loggerhead Sea Turtles Senza and Mabouche joining The Deep family.
It is hard to believe that they have already been with us so long, I remember meeting them for the first time like it was yesterday. The turtles came to us when their aquarium had to close and we were happy to be able to offer them a forever home. We traveled to Belgium to meet them and help with their transport. Their keeper at the time told us that they show preference toward different people. Despite my initial excitement, I was suddenly worried they would not like me. We got into a shallow holding area so we could interact with them for the first time. I held my breath and waited to see how they would react to me. I cannot express how relieved I was when Senza came right over. It was one of the most magical moments, to be so close to such amazing animals and feel so lucky to get to work with them. Fast forward five years and I still feel just as lucky every day. We have now built a strong relationship that allows me to provide the best possible care.
Senza and Mabouche have completely opposite personalities, they could not be any more different if they tried. The best analogy that we have come up with is to compare Senza to a dog and Mabouche to a cat. Senza wants to be in the middle of everything and will interact with us a lot. She loves food and is never picky about what she eats. She is typically very active and likes to spend a lot of time swimming. Mabouche, on the other hand, is always picky about food and her preferences can change quickly. She chooses when she wants to interact, is usually a bit slower to engage, and prefers to spend most of her time resting.
Senza and Mabouche have become two of the most loved and recognized residents of The Deep. As animal ambassadors, they help us tell important stories, such as highlighting concerns about plastic pollution in the ocean and climate change. They have inspired summer programing and educational content and have become an integral part of our education and conservation messages.
The Deep participates in the European Sea Turtle Working Group, which recently published guidelines for caring for sea turtles in aquariums. The goal is to work with other aquariums to ensure the best possible standards of care and work together on projects to help better understand and further improve sea turtle husbandry. The Deep has also formed a partnership with the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States to help save cold stunned sea turtles. This is an important project because hundreds of critically endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles strand every year and rescuing and rehabilitating them is integral to the survival of the species.
Both of our turtles are rescue animals and because of their injuries, they would not be able to survive on their own in the ocean. If you look closely, you will see that they are both missing their lower beaks. Their names reflect this – Senza’s full name is Senzabecco, which means “without beak” in Italian, and Mabouche means “my mouth” in French. Missing their lower beaks means that they are not able to eat normally. To help facilitate their feeding, they have been trained to recall. This means that when we turn on a special light, they know to look for and go to their individually colored targets – yellow for Senza and red for Mabouche. This training helps to facilitate their feeding and health checks. We have to be careful though because they know their colors. Once we accidentally bought red scrub brushes for the divers to use and Mabouche thought they were for her! We quickly switched to black brushes so there was no more confusion.
The next time you visit The Deep, be sure to say hello to Senza and Mabouche and take a minute to recognize how special they are and to remember that all the animals of the world’s oceans need our help. We have opportunities big and small to make a difference – from The Deep offering a forever home to rescued sea turtles to each of us making decisions in our daily lives, such as choosing to use reusable shopping bags, saying no to disposable straws, or picking up trash the next time you visit the beach. Every little thing adds up together to make a big impact!
Happy World Sea Turtle Day!