It had been brought back to health at the Coffs Coast Wildlife Sanctuary (CCWS) after a near fatal entanglement 18 months ago.

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CCWS carer Maicee Heterick led the release, assisted by City of Coffs Harbour Mayor Nikki Williams.

“Nikki” (the turtle) was rescued by another Nikki (the owner of Secret Garden Café at Garden Mania), who found it tangled up in a fishing line on Gallows Beach.

The turtle was covered in barnacles and two-thirds of its front flipper was missing, exposing a bone joint.

The fishing line was wrapped around its neck and body.

Immediate surgery was too risky, so for the next four weeks “Nikki” was stabilised through regular dry docking, freshwater baths and swim tests, and by being fed lots of seafood.

“After surgery, ‘Nikki’ had to rebuild strength again before going into the pre-release habitat,” Maicee told News Of The Area.

“In that habitat is a current, which helps them to build up a lot of that muscle that was lost.

“It also helps to create competition between the other turtles… as it encourages them to forage for [the] food we throw in for them every day.”

The decision to release a turtle is made in consultation with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and CCWS management.

“We took extensive records every day of ‘Nikki’s’ progress in swimming, eating, and general health and from that we made the decision together.”

“Nikki” is estimated to be a juvenile, around 10 to 15-years-old, but the turtle’s sex could not be determined.

If it turns out to be female, Tiga Cross from the Wildlife Sanctuary hopes she will return to the mainland when she is aged 30, to lay her own eggs; continuing the life cycle of this magnificent species.

And if “Nikki” is male, Tiga hopes he finds many females and contributes to breeding efforts to secure the future of his species.

“Nikki” is tagged which will help with tracking and data collection.

Maicee said sea turtles can go right out to sea but there are a lot on the Solitary Islands.

“That is a protected marine habitat. As an endangered species, we do hope our released sea turtles go towards the Solitary Islands.”

The Mayor describes releasing “Nikki” as an incredible experience, “you could really feel that beautiful ‘Nikki’ was so ready to get back in the wild, flapping around the closer we got to letting it go.

“To have a space here in Coffs Harbour where they rehabilitate our wildlife and then… release them back into the wild is incredible.

“It’s taken over $15,000 to nurse ‘Nikk’i back to health and that’s been through lots of donations from our entire community.”

Scarlett Ryan Sutherland, 7, attended the release having been inspired by marine conservation when she attended CCWS’s Eco Groms after-school program.

The program’s activities include caring for some of the animals at the sanctuary, helping in the Turtle Triage, and interacting with the sanctuary’s dolphins, penguins and Australian sea lions.

“I want to work in marine biology when I grow up,” Scarlett told NOTA.

“I was really interested to learn about sea life and how different each animal is and the different things they do.”

The CCWS rescues around 200 turtles every year with the length of stay depending on the severity of each illness or injury.

These often include boat strikes, buoyancy issues, entanglement or plastic ingestion.

By Andrea FERRARI