JONESPORT, Maine — A giant leatherback turtle was rescued Wednesday morning by a U.S. Coast Guard crew that noticed the creature was entangled in lobster pot rigging a half-mile south of Great Duck Island. The island is in the Gulf of Maine south of Mount Desert Island.
“We were boarding a lobster boat for an inspection and noticed there was some unusual activity on a nearby lobster pot rigging,” said Senior Chief Michael Koch, the officer in charge of the U.S. Coast Guard vessel Moray, an 87-foot patrol boat based in Jonesport. “Our crew was able to switch from an inspection mode to a marine mammal rescue situation.”
Koch estimates that the turtle was 5 feet long and weighed between 300 and 400 pounds.
“We all cheered when we were able to untangle the turtle and see it swim free,” he said. “It was a good feeling.”
Good save! The hard part is there are thousands more buoys, lines, and boats
great work, gotta love happy endings:)
I am also very happy for the 1,129,890 other turtles who were not caught in gear today…or yeaterday….or then day before that…….most turtles receive proper training on avoiding these types of ocean hazards….looks like this guy is headed back to retraining…can’t afford to lose just one of these guys to those greedy, resource gulping lobsterman
This is awesome! But turtles aren’t mammals :/
“Our crew was able to switch from an inspection mode to a marine mammal rescue situation.”
Sheesh…they make it sound like they are a collection of Transformer toys.
Haha yea, give the CG all the credit. Lobsterman untangle them from their lines on occasion. You don’t hear about them being “heros”. Good thing it doesn’t get reported though. Dealing with the whale issue is enough to worry about.
Another happy ending; but no turtle soup for Helen’s. :)
Good deal….
what a great story! It is heart-warming to know that a few men noticed the buoy moving and decided to check it out. How marvelous they noticed this activity and were able to free the leatherback.