In one of our more recent Shark Watch tours, we had a little bit of unexpected excitement thrown into the mix. The Shark Watch tour started early in the morning as normal and we had a few guests joining us on the tour. The weather was good and the water was perfect. It wasn’t long until we got our first view of the resident Black Tip Reef Sharks that populate the Long Beach when out of the blue, the boat staff started to call us back to the boat.

From Shark Watch To Rescue Mission

This was certainly out of character for the boat crew and our instincts kicked in immediately. We scanned the area carefully and headed back to the boat to see what the issue was. As soon as we’d boarded, the Captain quickly pointed out a rather large Hawksbill Turtle swimming nearby.

After a quick observation and armed with a good knowledge about the native Hawksbill Turtles, we could see that the turtle was no longer able to fully submerge itself and that it was carrying a fairly significant injury. This was probably from either getting dashed against rocks or some sort of boat impact.

Rescuing An Injured Hawksbill Turtle

In addition to the damage that we could see on it’s shell, we could see that this poor Hawksbill Turtle was also missing a fin. Fortunately, this appeared to be an older injury and looked nearly healed, but we knew immediately that we needed to react and get this turtle some medical attention.

 
We got the injured critter onto the boat safely and made sure it was comfortable for the short trip back to the pier at Phi Phi Island. From there we contacted our friends over at the Department of Marine and Coastline Resources (DMCR) to discuss our options.

The turtle was then transferred back over to Phuket with a little help from our friends at Phi Phi Sabai Marine and then collected by the staff at the Phuket Marine Biology Centre (PMBC), where it has begun it’s rehabilitation.

Sharks, Turtles, Rescue Missions – there’s always a lot of excitement when you book a dive tour with The Adventure Club Phi Phi!

To find our more about the Hawksbill Turtle, click here.

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