A rare, 500-pound leatherback turtle was rescued after being stranded on a remote South Carolina beach on Saturday, wildlife officials told Reuters.
The leatherback turtle, the world's largest sea turtle, was seen stranded on a barrier island named Yawkey-South Island Reserve near Georgetown. Officials from the South Carolina Aquarium said the endangered turtle was ill and nearly comatose, but alive.
"I can hardly believe it. They don't strand alive very often," Kelly Thorvalson, manager of the aquarium's Sea Turtle Rescue Program, told Reuters.
After a challenging four hours, a team of five rescuers removed the stranded reptile and took it to the aquarium in Charleston.
"It was logistically difficult," Thorvalson told Reuters. "We had a turtle stretcher on a board and we all did our best to lift it. It was very lethargic and sick looking."
Officials are not yet sure what happened to the female leatherback, named Yawkey after the wildlife reserve it was found on. It's possible she ate something she was not supposed to, such as debris or a plastic bag she mistook for a jellyfish.
Either way, Yawkey is lucky to be alive. She is the first leatherback sea turtle to be rescued in South Carolina, Jenna Cormany, a wildlife biologist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, told Reuters.
Thorvalson said the turtle is being treated for possible intestinal blockage. She is improving and will be released back into the wild, Reuters reported.
Leatherbacks are the only sea turtles that do not have a hard shell, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Full-grown adults can weigh up to 2,000 pounds but their average lifespan is unknown.
