300 pound turtle saved by volunteers
By Angela McClure, Best Friends NetworkMembers of the Cape Island Turtle Project rescued a male Loggerhead off the coast of South Carolina on Wednesday, May 16. The 7 year old turtle, later named Dylan, was found with its fin wrapped by the rope of an old crab pot. The 300 pound turtle had to be towed to shore and then lifted onto a truck to be treated at an animal hospital.
A member of the Sea Island Turtle Rescue Program, Kelly Thorvalson, said that the rope did not cut the flipper to the bone and could be saved with treatment. "Overall, the turtle is in good health," Thorvalson said. Dylan was aided at the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston.
Charlotte Hope, South Carolina Natural Resources Department biologist, said that males are rarely seen since they don’t have to come to shore to lay eggs. Hope said that in the past 23 years she has only seen only five adult males.
The loggerhead was listed in 1978 as a threatened species and it is considered "vulnerable" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Recent population studies have concluded that the number of females that nest in the Southeast U.S. is continuing to decline. The loggerhead shares the same threats that menace all marine turtles, as described in “Threats to Marine Turtles,”
http://www.turtles.org/threats.htm. These threats include shrimp fishing, gill netting, and activities associated with offshore oil and gas exploitation are particularly dangerous to this species.
Learn more about the Cape Island Turtle Project and see a turtle hatchling video at this link: http://www.fws.gov/caperomain/turtles/capeislandturtles.htm