Symonne Ellis, our latest Facebook follower, told us that she had “had an interesting couple of days with two observations that (she) thought may be of interest”.
Symonne sent us some photos and a short video, saying “The first is a fish or eel at West Lakes. Are you able to tell me what it is called please? The second, I was surprised to find, the poor little sea turtle that didn’t make it at Semaphore Beach.”
We told Symonne, “Thanks for sending those photos through to us. A baby turtle sighting here is rare, but we see adults occasionally. Yours looks to be an Olive Ridley sea turtle by its features, including the grey flippers and pointed tail. It is important to have this on record. You can get expert opinion by posting it to iNaturalist. Your eel is actually an Estuary catfish.”
Symonne allowed us to share her photos and we posted them to our Facebook page – the Turtle at https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=874227024846076&set=pcb.874227604846018 and the Catfish at https://fb.watch/vxO4sZ_CG3/ .
They are repeated here for you to view: –
And here is the short video footage of then Estuary catfish at West Lakes: –