“BREVARD COUNTY, FL —An endangered green sea turtle is on its way to SeaWorld Wednesday.
The turtle was found near Port Canaveral with fishing line wrapped around its neck.
Officials said they think it might have swallowed the fishing hook.
The animal was found stranded on some rocks by a fisherman.
The Sea Turtle Preservation Society is taking the animal to SeaWorld for rehabilitation.”
By ANGELA HARVEY
“BALTIMORE — Sea turtle number 32 had a small part of its front left flipper amputated last week because a joint lesion has not healed since the reptile was brought to the National Aquarium’s Marine Animal Rescue Program in November.
“It’s an infection in the joint so we don’t want it to spread and then have to amputate the entire flipper,” said Amber White, a husbandry aide. “As you can image that would impair his swimming ability.”
The surgery on Friday went well. Number 32 has stitches in the flipper and has resumed its normal swimming activities, while stitches on the turtle’s front right flipper are healing well after a similar amputation was done at the animal care center in January.
Number 32 was found stranded off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass., White said. Its rehabilitation carries high stakes because it is a Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle, the smallest and most critically endangered species of sea turtles.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined the Kemp’s Ridley turtle’s nesting numbers started declining dramatically after 1947, reaching a low of 702 nests in 1985. Since the mid-1980s, the number of nests laid in a season has been increasing. There were 20,800 documented nest in 2011. This increase is attributed to nest protection efforts and regulations requiring the use of turtle excluder devices in commercial fishing trawls.
Sea turtles were in the public eye last week when more than 1,000 scientists, researchers, conservationists, lawmakers and students from 80 different countries came to Baltimore for the 33rd Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation, said Dr. Ray Carthy, president of the International Sea Turtle Society and assistant unit leader of the Florida Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit.
“A disabled loggerhead sea turtle has been fitted with a pair of artificial flippers in a Japanese aquarium.
Staff at the Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe have been trying to design a pair of prosthetic flippers for the turtle since the creature was first brought there in 2008.” – Tom Bayly reports.
Entire Artile By RICK MAYER|TBO.com staff
“TAMPA –An endangered green sea turtle that nearly died while trapped in fishing line has found a new home in – of all places – Kansas City.
Gertrude, who lost a front flipper, has been recovering at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium since she was rescued in September 2011.
On Monday, she flew from Tampa International Airport inside the cabin of a Southwest Airlines jet.
Destination: the 10-month-old Sea Life Kansas City Aquarium, far from where a Pinellas County fisherman found the turtle with fishing line around her neck and front flippers.
One flipper had to be amputated and the other had to be fused, so she can no longer flee predators, the Clearwater facility said.
So she’ll be Missouri’s first sea turtle.
Southwest made a travel exception for Gertrude, waiving her pet fee and allowing her to fly in the cabin. Alongside was Aaron Sprowl, display curator for the Sea Life Kansas City Aquarium.
Gertrude will begin her stay in a holding tank at Sea Life Kansas City until being released in the aquarium’s ocean tank for display. The aquarium opened last April.”
