Shark vs turtle: Photo shows scars of narrow escape off North Carolina coast
You think 2020 has been rough?
Tell it to this sea turtle in North Carolina that nearly froze to death and survived months of rehabilitation only to narrowly escape becoming a shark’s lunch and start all over again
The reptile was finally released back into the ocean last week after months of rehabilitation at a sea turtle hospital on the coast. But just days later, it was back after another mishap, according to Cape Lookout National Seashore.
The young green sea turtle was found cold stunned on the Outer Banks last winter, Cape Lookout said in a Facebook post this week.
Cold stunning is a form of hypothermia sea turtles can suffer when water temperatures drop below 50 degrees, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The turtles lose the ability to control their body temperature, which they usually do by moving to warmer waters or sunbathing. As a result, they become lethargic.
Cold-stunned turtles are likely to be hit by a boat, eaten by a predator or become sick and die, NOAA says.
But officials on the Outer Banks were on the lookout for turtles during a cold snap and found the roughy foot-long reptile and about 100 others that were cold-stunned, Jon Altman, a biologist with Cape Lookout National Seashore, told McClatchy News on Thursday.
The turtle, estimated to be 5 to 7 years old, was then turned over to state wildlife officials and sent to a sea turtle hospital on Topsail Beach, where it spent months in rehabilitation, Altman said.
It was finally released into the ocean along with 17 others on June 5, Karen Duggan, a park ranger at Cape Lookout, told McClatchy News.
But its return to the sea was short-lived.
Two days later, the unlucky turtle was found again with shark bites on its shell and was taken back to the same hospital, according to the Facebook post.
The turtle has another long recovery ahead, as it will take a while for its shell to heal, Duggan said.
As Cape Lookout put it: “The ocean is a tough place.”
The turtle’s fate, however, could have been much worse.
Something must have happened to distract the shark and give the sea turtle time to escape becoming a meal, Duggan said. But it’s unclear exactly how it got away and found itself back ashore.
Sharks, especially tiger sharks, are known for eating sea turtles.
“People don’t have to worry about shark attacks,” Duggan said. “This is a shark going after its natural food.”
But officials aren’t sure what species of shark got a hold of the turtle. The bite marks on the shell show it was smaller, possibly a juvenile sand tiger, and that it tried to “chomp” multiple times, Duggan said.
All sea turtles face “dangers and hurdles” in their lifetime, Altman said, and since it takes them 30 years to mature enough to reproduce, it’s a big reason they’re endangered.
This turtle has already faced a lot of adversity in its short life. Officials estimate it’s between 5 and 7 years old based on its size, which is about 12-14 inches in length.
“Good thing it had its shell,” the Facebook post says.
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Shark vs turtle: Photo shows scars of narrow escape off North Carolina coast."
