The Two Oceans Aquarium’s Education Foundation is set to create the next generation of ocean champions thanks to Yoshi the loggerhead turtle.

The #YoshiChallenge aims to give 35 000 children across the country an opportunity to connect to the ocean-environment, and to help rehabilitate and release stranded turtles.

The goal of 35 000 children is to honor Yoshi’s remarkable 35 000km ocean journey.

For more on the #YoshiChallenge visit www.aquarium.co.za

Yoshi’s story

The size of a dinner plate when she first arrived at the Two Oceans Aquarium (Cape Town, South Africa) in 1997, Yoshi weighed 183kg and measured 107cm long and 89cm across on the day she was released, south of Cape Town, on 16 December 2017.

Now, two years and 35 000km later, Yoshi is beating records and blowing minds. If the journey between her Angolan feeding grounds (which she visited in 2018) and her nesting site, which we currently think may be on Australia’s northern coast, proves to be her natural migration path, then this could be the longest migration journey undertaken by any sea animal ever recorded – longer than the current record holders: humpback whales, great white sharks and leatherback turtles.

Yoshi’s 35 000km journey through South Africa, Angola and Australia’s waters is incredible, but her journey almost ended 20 years ago when she encountered humans for the first time. Yoshi got lucky and was rescued, but most other turtles encountering human-made hazards don’t get a second chance.