Video: Mystic Aquarium Rehabilitating Kemp’s Ridley Turtle

The Mystic Aquarium is the temporary home of one tough turtle. The is rehabilitating a rare Kemp’s ridley turtle found with a 9-inch fishing lure attached to its check. The turtle is only 8-inches long. 

While treating the turtle the Aquarium also discovered the turtle can only see out of one eye as the result of some sort of blunt force trauma that happened before the fishing lure incident.

The little turtle is about two to three years old. Skip Graf, a stranding assistant for the Aquarium, said Kemp's ridley turtles can live to be from 80 to 120 years old and reach 2 1/2 feet.

Graf believes the turtle was dragging around the fishing lure for a while as it is a little thin and the wound from the fishing lure had begun to heal.

The Aquarium hopes to release the turtle back into the wild within the next few months, but the staff wants to make sure that in addition to not suffering any sort of infection from the fishing lure the turtle is able to catch prey with only one working eye.

Kemp's ridley turtles are one of the most critically endangered turtles. Many of their breeding grounds on the beaches of Mexico and Central America have suffered the side effects of increased human activity Graf said.

Erin Merz, manager of media and public relations for the Aquarium said unfortunately most of the turtles the Aquarium encounters are already dead. Graf said about 24 turtles wash up in the area each year but most of those are leatherback turtles.

A family visiting Sand Hill Cove in Narragansett came across the turtle and took the turtle and the fishing lure home. The family removed the fishing lure and contacted the Aquarium to see if they would want to take a look. Graf said that the Aquarium always responds to the calls they receive about stranding marine animals, and that while the family did a wonderful job of removing the lure Aquarium staff would have preferred to that themselves. Anyone who comes across a marine animal can contact the Aquarium 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at 860-572-5955 extension 107.