A Silent Return: The Story of a 110 cm Loggerhead Turtle Tagged in South Africa and Found in Mozambique

On the 7th of November 2025 Vincente Matsimbe and the rangers from the Maputo National Park brought sad but important news from Ponta Techobanine; a large deceased loggerhead turtle had washed ashore.

The magnificent mature female had a curved carapace that measured over a meter and bore two turtle tags, one on her left and one on her right front flippers; both of South African origin.

Image 1: Severe head injury; Image 2: Female loggerhead turtle; Image 3/4: The tags

The tags numbers came up blank on DERC’s data and further investigation is required to see if she has been seen at other sites further north.

She was one of South Africa’s nesting females who had crossed the border into Mozambique, just as so many do every season. Thanks to the incredible long-term monitoring programme run by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife; iSimangaliso Wetland Park - Maputo National Park World Heritage site and DERC, we know exactly who she was.

She was sighted just south of Ponta do Ouro during the 2010/2011 season on three recorded occasions. Santosh Bachoo, KZN Wildlife’s Regional Marine Ecologist notes that she was not seen again after that season. For almost 15 years she lived her oceanic life somewhere out there – foraging, migrating, surviving – until the first week of November when she returned to the same stretch of coast, a few km's north of where she once crawled up the dunes to lay her eggs.

Tragically, she suffered massive head trauma. The injury was severe and recent; the exact cause is still unknown, but the pattern is heartbreakingly familiar: boat strike remains the most likely culprit. Her journey ended violently, far from the peaceful nesting beach she once knew.

After documenting the stranding, taking measurements and a flesh sample for genetic archiving, we removed the tags and buried her.

Image 1: Underside of the female loggerhead, showing no other external injuries.

Image 2: That ladies got nails, not really, they do however posses a single claw on each flipper that can measure up to 3cm, in adult females these are used for digging the egg chamber and for extra grip when hauling themselves up the soft sandy dunes.

Image 3: DERC volunteers Sandro and Catarina taking measurements and samples.

Why does this single stranding matter?

Because every tag tells a story of connection. This female reminds us that the beaches of northern KwaZulu-Natal and southern Mozambique are not separate – biologically speaking – the same rookery. The border on our maps is meaningless to a loggerhead. She nested in South Africa, foraged across the Western Indian Ocean and finally came to rest in Mozambique. Protecting her required cooperation across provinces, across countries, across decades.

Fourteen years between her last nest and today also highlights how incredibly long-lived these animals are and how patient conservation must be. The protection measures put in place in the 1960s and 1970s are still paying off – loggerhead nesting numbers in our shared region have increased but new threats that include fast boats, coastal development and climate-driven changes means we can never relax.

So, as the sun sets over the nesting beaches of Isimangaliso and Maputo National Park’s beaches,  we say thank you to an old warrior who carried South Africa’s tags across an invisible line in the sand. Your brief visits 15 years ago helped build the data that protects your grand-daughters today.

Rest easy, ZATT083/085. Your story is now part of ours.

With love and respect,

Angie Gullan

Dolphin Encountours Research Center

Ponta do Ouro, Mozambique