A loggerhead turtle was spotted floating in the surf off of Durban’s North Beach. A rescue crew from Metro managed to swim to the 15-year-old animal, realised she was trapped in fishing line and helped her back to the beach, according to East Coast Radio.
Rescuers discovered the animal’s flipper was badly injured as a result of the entanglement. East Coast Radio spoke to Curator of Animal Health at Ushaka Marine World, Francois Lampen who said that she arrived at the veterinary clinic in a horrific condition.
‘She’s quite emaciated, there is fishing line basically wrapped around the left flipper, and it is wrapped quite close to her body, and it’s basically strangulated the whole leg – it’s cut into the whole leg. The whole flipper has gone gangrenous,’ said Lampen.
The turtle, affectionately named North, will have to have her flipper amputated.
‘We started her on some antibiotics. We are trying to stabilise her before we consider surgery. It’s quite a large section that is necrotic, and we need to make sure she is strong for surgery. We will have to do this under general anaesthetic because it is a large surgery. We want to make sure she survives,’ Lampen concluded.
Image: Unsplash
