In Reply to: See Turtles posted by Marine Life on October 25, 2008 at 09:48:17:

I rescued a turtle last year on the other side of that same channel shown in the video. Right next to Schooner or Later, there is a series of tunnels that feed the water to the power plant by way of that channel. The front of those tunnels have a grill to keep big debris from flowing thru. I just happened to be on a fish-watching walk when i saw a small green sea turtle struggling with an obstruction in it's mouth--i thought it was a plastic bag at first, but it turned out to be a big octopus and the turtle was suffocating on it.

The turtle was in obvious distress so i waited for an opportunity to catch it and remove the octopus. It was actually trying to climb the walls and the dock. A man told me that when he was cleaning his hull that morning it tried to climb on him! As i was watching, it swam down and got sucked up against one of the grills and was unable to move. I ran down the dock and retrieved a pole from a dingy storage area and i was able to free the turtle from the grip of the current. By the time i got my hands on him he was unresponsive, his eyes rolled back in his head. I pulled the octopus tentacles from its throat and set him in the shade with his head propped up to straighten his air passages.

By this time there was a crowd gathering and a couple of boys brought me a small bucket to keep him wet--still unresponsive, i decided to pour a stream of water over his head to prompt him to breath. After the second time he lifted his head and took a huge gasp of air. Everyone cheered! Within minutes he was revived and conscience again. Someone had already called animal control and they arrived and took it to the Aquarium of the pacific.

A couple of weeks later i went to the aquarium to see the turtle and let's just say they weren't very friendly... one person said i should have been fined for interfering with an endangered turtle. The turtle i rescued had only minutes to live, if i had not taken immediate action, his empty shell would still be against that grate. I found their head veterinarian and he took me to the tank where they kept the turtle and i got to see him. It was healthy and had a nice growth of moss on its back from being exposed to the sun. He told me they were going to release it back in the bay??? I offered to release it 50 miles offshore, but he said they couldn't do that...

The Press Telegram wrote a story about my rescue and that was very nice of them. What started as a walk along the bay turned out to be something i will be proud of forever~

• Exceptionally cool (-) seahunt 21:43:26 10/27/08 (1)
  • Agreed!! (nfm) Marine Life 22:48:59 10/27/08 (0)