Photographer Chris van Wyk got really famous online with his photos of a Mary River turtle covered in green algae, giving it a cool “punk” look. His photos made a lot of people pay attention to protecting where these turtles live.
The Mary River turtle is a special kind of turtle that breathes in a unique way, which has earned it the nickname “bum-breather.” It’s found in the Mary River in Queensland, Australia. This turtle can stay underwater for up to 72 hours because it has special glands in its reproductive organs that help it breathe. But in 2009, the government in Queensland wanted to build a dam in the river at Traveston Crossing. This would have split up where the turtles live and destroyed their important breeding spots.
Chris van Wyk, who was learning photography at the time, didn’t like this idea. He decided to do something about it. He spent a whole day in the river wearing a wetsuit, even though it was really cold and his arms and legs got numb. He took lots of bad pictures until he got lucky. He found a turtle with green algae all over its head, making it look like it had a green mohawk. It was the perfect subject for a picture that would make people understand why it’s important to protect these turtles.
After searching all day, the photographer finally found a turtle with green algae on its head, which was cool. The photographer wanted to help protect these turtles.
They shared the photos in newspapers and on social media to tell people about the turtles. Some people who didn’t want a dam to be built liked the pictures and wanted to use them to tell others about the turtles.
One of the photos got really popular online. Because of this, the government changed their plans and decided not to build the dam. This was good news for the turtles because it meant they were safe, at least for now.
The proposed Traveston Crossing Dam site was exactly where the turtles lived. Photo credit goes to Patrick McCully.
The Mary River turtle was almost wiped out before. Back in the 1960s and ’70s, people sold them as cheap pets without knowing where they came from. Scientists hadn’t even discovered this species yet, and it was almost extinct. Besides being sold as pets, the turtles’ habitat was also threatened by activities like cattle grazing, cutting down trees, and mining sand along the river banks.
A reptile expert named John Cann from Sydney realized that the little turtle sold as a Christmas gift in New South Wales and Victoria was actually a species that scientists hadn’t identified. Dealers in the wildlife trade didn’t want to say where they got the turtles from. Cann spent twenty years searching through Australian river systems and even in Papua New Guinea to find out where these turtles came from.
For about twenty years, Mary River turtles were sold as cheap pets, which almost led to their extinction. Image courtesy of Chris van Wyk.
Then, in 1984, the government in Victoria made a rule that freshwater turtle babies with shells shorter than 100 mm couldn’t be sold anymore. This stopped people from taking and selling Mary River turtles. It also meant traders didn’t need to hide where the turtles came from anymore. John eventually found out that the turtles came from Maryborough, where they live.
That was when we first saved the turtle from disappearing forever.
Now, will the cool turtle survive? It’s in our hands. Image courtesy of Chris van Wyk.
But the fight to protect the Mary River turtle isn’t over yet. Even though we stopped the dam from hurting them, we still need to do a lot more to make sure these unique turtles keep going. We can’t be sure they’ll survive until we’ve done everything we can to help them.
