{"id":569326,"date":"2026-03-28T05:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T05:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/569326\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T05:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T05:19:13","slug":"critically-endangered-hawksbill-sea-turtle-returns-to-wild-months-after-beach-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/569326\/","title":{"rendered":"Critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle returns to wild months after beach rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Carl von Schreiber took his usual walk on his local beach on the NSW far south coast last December, he wasn’t expecting to find a castaway.<\/p>\n

But that morning, the veterinarian’s constitutional along Beares Beach near Bermagui was interrupted by locals who had noticed a rare visitor \u2014 a stranded hawksbill sea turtle.<\/p>\n

Three months later, after a long road to recovery, Beare the turtle has returned to the wild.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Hawksbill sea turtles are a critically endangered species. (Supplied: Belinda Donovan)<\/p>\n

Hawksbill sea turtles are found in tropical coral reefs around the world, and are native to the waters of northern Australia, from Queensland to the north coast of WA.<\/p>\n

Juveniles are sometimes found further south because after hatching they spend a period of “lost years” floating in mats of debris and seaweed.<\/p>\n

Once targeted by hunters for their shells, they are now considered critically endangered.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Beare built up his strength thanks to months of care and a diet of prawns and fish. (Supplied: Belinda Donovan)<\/p>\n

The road to recovery<\/p>\n

Carl’s wife and business partner at Bermagui Veterinary Clinic, Motria von Schreiber, said the turtle might have been there for some time.<\/p>\n

“People had been seeing him for about three days,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Because of his shape and size, it was easy to mistake him for a sandy rock.”<\/p>\n

Looking after a sea turtle requires specialist care, so Carl and Motria made some calls to have Beare \u2014 named after the beach where he was found \u2014 transferred to the experts: Mudgeroo Wombat & Wildlife Refuge in Jervis Bay, operated by Belinda and Phil Donovan.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Beare looked like a “sandy rock” when he was stranded on Beares Beach at Bermagui. (Supplied: Honor Northam)<\/p>\n

Ms Donovan took charge of his recovery and said it was touch and go at times.<\/p>\n

“Some turtles, it’s very clear what caused their debilitation. But unfortunately, Beare’s was a bit of a mystery,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If they’re not doing well, they can’t dive, so they’re often covered in a heavy load of epibiota [barnacles].\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Because they’re not diving down, these parasites take hold.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Belinda Donovan says sick or injured turtles often end up covered in barnacles. (Supplied: Mudgeroo Wombat & Wildlife Refuge)<\/p>\n

Before long, Beare was getting his strength back thanks to a strict diet of prawns and fish.<\/p>\n

Ms Donovan says hawksbills are surprisingly active compared to other sea turtles.<\/p>\n

“[Hawksbills] are quite cheeky and they’ll slap the water if they’re not happy.<\/p>\n

“And of course, they know when it’s feed time, they’re very bolshie. They come up and say, ‘Where’s my tucker?'”<\/p>\n

It took almost four months of care for Ms Donovan to feel confident that Beare was out of the woods \u2014 but that’s nothing to a hawksbill, which can live up to 80 years.<\/p>\n

Once the vets signed off on his final tests, it was time to return him to where he belonged \u2014 no small feat, considering that hawksbills’ native range starts nearly 300 kilometres further north.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Belinda Donovan was able to release Beare back into the wild after months of care and recovery. (Supplied: Belinda Donovan)<\/p>\n

To get him there, the Donovans drove 280km to Port Stephens. Then, it was just a case of pointing Beare towards Queensland \u2014 and hoping for the best.<\/p>\n

Ms Donovan said saving an endangered animal like Beare felt pretty special.<\/p>\n

“Not many of them make it through to become adults. So all those that we can save helps create more breeding animals down the track.<\/p>\n

Ms Donovan said anyone who saw a stranded turtle should contact their local wildlife rescue organisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Carl von Schreiber took his usual walk on his local beach on the NSW far south coast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,279889,102175,279888,279885,279884,279886,279887,44440,128,338,23788],"class_list":{"0":"post-569326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-beares-beach","11":"tag-belinda-donovan","12":"tag-bermagui-veterinary-clinic","13":"tag-carl-von-schreiber","14":"tag-hawksbill-sea-turtle","15":"tag-motria-von-schreiber","16":"tag-mudgeroo-wombat-wildlife-refuge","17":"tag-nsw-far-south-coast","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-wildlife","20":"tag-wildlife-rescue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}