Winners Gallery

After being trapped in a fishing net for several hours, this injured leatherback turtle was rescued from the waters of the Algarve. Rodrigues explains: “The 300 kg male was transferred to the Marine Species Rehabilitation Centre at Zoomarine's Porto d'Abrigo, where he spent 49 days in quarantine to recover. Upon release, a satellite tag was fixed to its carapace to collect data on the turtle's future journey. Monitoring was scheduled for three years, but was interrupted after only 21 days. Even so, the collected data was enough to intrigue the investigators. From the moment it was released back into the ocean in the Algarve, the leatherback turtle swam an impressive distance of a 1,000 kilometres, until it reached reaching Fuerteventura, in the Canaries. According to biologist Élio Vicente, the coincidence of being in an area of ​​intense maritime traffic could be one of the explanations for the release of the tag.”