The End Of An Era

Last night at the Scuba Club monthly meeting we were told that the turtles in the turtle pond were going to be released. There have been rumors of this going around for awhile but now it is confirmed.
They recieved a physical to ensure they were healthy and disease free so they wouldn't cause any problems for the local wild turtles.
The idea is that sea turtles are endangered and reintroducing these two back into the population would allow them to contribute to their species and help the dwindling population.
It is not known where the turtles originated from and it is unknown whether they would remain in this area or possibly relocate to another region. The hope is that they will be tagged so they can be tracked for at least the 30 days or so that a satellite tracker could provide. The cost of each tracker is around $5000 so it's unknown if the expense will be incurred.
I believe they said the two remaining turtles are known as Big Guy and Speedo. I had no idea they had names.....
Here is a picture I took of one of the turtles when I first arrived, almost 3 years ago!