{"id":760339,"date":"2026-06-25T23:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/760339\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T23:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:22:17","slug":"jetski-riders-rescue-princess-peach-the-turtle-stranded-on-magnetic-island-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/760339\/","title":{"rendered":"Jetski riders rescue ‘Princess Peach’ the turtle stranded on Magnetic Island beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a group of jetskiers stumbled across a green sea turtle during a tour of Magnetic Island, Andrew Eslick panicked, thinking the creature was dead.<\/p>\n

Mr Eslick was leading a tour around the island’s beaches and initially assumed the creature was sunbaking.<\/p>\n

“We get closer to it and I think, ‘Oh no, this turtle’s not moving. I think I’m about to show everyone a dead turtle,'” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

‘Princess Peach’ was found on Maud Bay beach on Magnetic Island.\u00a0 (Supplied: Magnetic Island Jet Skis)<\/p>\n

But as he reached out to pat the turtle on its head, it opened its eyes.<\/p>\n

It became clear the animal was “unhealthy and weak”.<\/p>\n

“Her shell started having little bloody patches all over it where her shell had become soft and started to peel off like wet paper,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Eslick asked the group if they wanted to stop the tour at Maud Bay beach to save the turtle.<\/p>\n

They insisted on helping and secured a lifeguard ski from a nearby area.<\/p>\n

Mr Eslick’s three-year-old son, who was part of the group, dubbed the turtle ‘Princess Peach’.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The three-year-old is currently going through a “Mario phase”, which inspired the name.\u00a0 (Supplied: Magnetic Island Jet Skis)<\/p>\n

“It took a bit of a group effort to get her onto this board because she weighed over a hundred kilos, she was a big turtle,” Mr Eslick said.<\/p>\n

“We finally got her onto \u2026 the ski, and we made our way back to Horseshoe [Bay].<\/p>\n

“That’s where the turtle hospital people were waiting for us, and they took care of the rest from there.”<\/p>\n

It was only six months ago that Mr Eslick rescued another turtle, dubbed ‘Betty’.<\/p>\n

“We handed her over to the turtle hospital,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When we brought Princess Peach in, the turtle hospital was like, ‘Far out, every time you bring us a turtle, it’s getting bigger and bigger.'”<\/p>\n

Magnetic Island Network for Turtles rehabilitation clinic coordinator Lily Donnelly is helping to take care of Princess Peach.<\/p>\n

She said besides infectious lesions it was a healthy turtle that could be anywhere between 50 and 80 years old.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The jetskiers learned about local wildlife while exploring the coastline during the tour. (Supplied: Magnetic Island Jet Skis)<\/p>\n

“We’re actually still trying to find out what the causative agent of her infection is, but she is healing well in care,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Donnelly said less than 12 weeks was the standard time for turtle recovery.<\/p>\n

“We try to get them out as soon as possible to keep them wild as possible,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

All pathology testing came back OK, and the turtle is recovering from its shell infection.\u00a0 (Supplied: Magnetic Island Jet Skis)<\/p>\n

Ms Donnelly said once the turtle had healed, it would be tagged for future monitoring.<\/p>\n

“All turtles under Queensland government regulations are tagged,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If you’re ever out snorkelling and you see a turtle with a tag, take a photo, and it might come from one of our rehab groups.”<\/p>\n

Mr Eslick said he was pleased his customers chose to stop and help.<\/p>\n

“That’s what we’re all about on the island, making sure we look after the water and look after our animals in this area.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a group of jetskiers stumbled across a green sea turtle during a tour of Magnetic Island, Andrew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,257550,22652,128,22655,338],"class_list":["post-760339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-green-sea-turtle","tag-magnetic-island","tag-science","tag-turtle","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}