Male Leatherback Sea Turtle Rescued

A giant seven ft long endangered ocean going leatherback sea turtle was found on a mud flat in Pamet Harbor in Truro, MA, near the tip of Cape Cod. The 655 pound massive turtle is being kept at the New England Aquarium's Marine Animal Care Center in Quincy, MA.

Staff from the Mass Aududon Sanctuary at Wellfleet Bay spotted this huge black sea going turtle in the night when the tides were high. Mass Audubon in collaboration with New England Aquarium's Marine Animal brought the turtle to the aquarium's Animal Care Center.

With assistance of a dolphin standing transport cart from the Cape Cod based International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Mass Audubon and IFAW staff with local volunteers shifted the one third ton skinny male reptile.

According to Dr. Charles Innis the leading authority on the medical care of turtles, said that the lethargic seven foot turtle is actually underweight. The staff took the blood samples of the turtle to evaluate its health and also administered the drug to treat it for dehydration, trauma and shock.

Leatherback sea turtles are supposed to be the world's largest reptile, and adults mostly weigh excess of 1000 pounds. They are the open sea turtles that migrate thousands of miles and have enormous front flippers that help them to pull their giant bodies through water.

The staff reported that the left front flipper was about a foot and a half shorter than the three foot long right one. They predict that the 40 percent of the paddle was gone due to some trauma and that the injury had probably occurred this season.

Leatherbacks are known to migrate in June to East Coast to feed on sea jellies in Massachusetts waters. They migrate south for the winter in September and October.