It has a turtle rehabilitation centre. Sick turtles are found all over Cape York, and taken to Cairns for treatment. They are assessed by vets and appropriate treatment is started. Then they go to the Cairns Aquarium, where they’re looked after until they’re ready for rehabilitation. At that stage, they’re transferred to the rehabilitation centre until they are ready to be released back where they came from. Most of the turtles have ingested too much plastic, and can’t dive anymore. A lot are victims of boat strikes - the volunteer told us of one male that had two fins amputated because of boat strikes, who was tracked in the Gulf of Carpentaria for 1500km after release.
Afterwards we were supposed to snorkel, but I was too tired, so I sat on the beach. We were supposed to go for walks in the afternoon, but it was too hot, so I had a lazy afternoon, listening to them trying to fix the problem with the boat lift. They decided that it needed a part that will take three months to arrive from Europe, so we’re continuing the trip without the ability to use the tender that’s used for snorkelling. This will be difficult, but at least we’re still going on!
There was a fire onshore (unfortunately Queensland is having a bad time with fires, but I think this may have been a burn off), and another beautiful sunset.
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