Topline:<\/p>\n
Porkchop, a three-flippered green sea turtle that was rescued nearly a year ago<\/a> after becoming severely entangled in fishing line and debris in the San Gabriel River, was released back to the wild Friday.<\/p>\n A long turtle lineage: Dubbed \u201cPorkchop\u201d by staff at the Aquarium of the Pacific due to her hefty appetite, the young female green sea turtle represents one of seven sea turtle species worldwide (six of which occur in U.S. waters). These animals have called our oceans home since at least the time of the dinosaurs \u2014 about 110 million years ago, according to NOAA<\/a>. All species of sea turtles found in the U.S. are listed as either endangered or threatened and are protected by the Endangered Species Act.<\/p>\n Porkchop\u2019s healing journey: Aquarium vets had to amputate Porkchop\u2019s right front flipper after tangled fishing lines severely cut off her blood flow. She also had a fishing hook removed from her throat. First rescued after being spotted in the San Gabriel River by volunteers with the aquarium\u2019s sea turtle monitoring program<\/a> last March, her healing journey took nearly a year. She now swims and eats as well as her four-flippered kin and after a final physical exam, blood sample and X-ray, vets determined she was ready to return to her wild roots. She also now has a microchip, so if she ends up stranded again, scientists will know it\u2019s her.<\/p>\n Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n An ambassador for conservation: Porkchop became the aquarium\u2019s first public-facing ambassador<\/a> for its expanded green sea turtle rescue efforts<\/a>. A new holding tank, viewable by the public, doubles the aquarium\u2019s capacity to rescue green sea turtles and provides firsthand education about their conservation efforts. The aquarium is currently caring for another larger and older female green sea turtle \u2014 she weighs more than 200 pounds \u2014 rescued from the San Gabriel River in January. She\u2019ll be in the public viewing tank in the coming months when she\u2019s recovered a bit more.<\/p>\n How to help local green sea turtles: Green sea turtle populations are actually doing quite well in the San Gabriel River<\/a>, but trash, debris and pollution remains a big threat. If you fish the San Gabriel River, never litter fishing lines or hooks. If you see a stranded sea turtle in the San Gabriel River or elsewhere, call the West Coast Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding Network\u2019s hotline at (562) 506-4315. You can also donate<\/a> to the aquarium\u2019s rescue program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline: Porkchop, a three-flippered green sea turtle that was rescued nearly a year ago after becoming severely entangled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[90940,13486,19232,226449,13488,206015,2690,226450,79,21036,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-494860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-aquarium","9":"tag-aquarium-of-the-pacific","10":"tag-conservation","11":"tag-green-sea-turtle","12":"tag-long-beach","13":"tag-porkchop","14":"tag-rehabilitation","15":"tag-san-gabriel-river","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-sea-turtle","18":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}