
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 14, 1994                    TAG: 9406140447 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B4    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: GLOUCESTER 
DATELINE: 940614                                 LENGTH: Short

300-POUND TURTLE RESCUED FROM NET

{LEAD} Virginia Institute of Marine Science veterinarians performed a medical rescue at sea Monday when they were lowered by helicopter to help a loggerhead turtle ensnared in a fishing net.

Petty Officer Robin Ressler of the U.S. Coast Guard said the turtle was caught in a net being used by the fishing vessel Drake, from Boston. The turtle was pulled aboard about 30 miles east of the Chesapeake light at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay.

{REST} Petty Officer Carol Johanningsmeier of the Coast Guard said the turtle was injured by a turtle excluder device used to extract the animal from the fishing net.

The device had trouble handling the turtle because of its size - 6 feet long and 300 pounds.

The injury, to the animal's head near its eye, was not life threatening.

The rescue took all afternoon. The Coast Guard was notified of the problem at 12:23 p.m., Johanningsmeier said.

The Coast Guard cutter Aquidneck arrived on the scene at 3:30 p.m., and the VIMS personnel arrived about 6 p.m. The veterinarians were lowered to the cutter and then ferried to the fishing vessel, Johanningsmeier said.

Physicians considered bringing the turtle to shore. But after examining it and injecting it with antibiotics, they released it into the Chesapeake Bay.

Loggerhead turtles are endangered, Ressler said, and every effort is made to rescue the marine reptiles when they are in trouble. Some marine biologists believe the turtles' numbers have been depleted because they often die when they become entangled in nets.

by CNB