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A Kemp’s ridley sea turtle lies along the shoreline on Mustang Island after washing ashore in distress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jackie Erbaugh<\/p>\n
A\u00a0South Texas<\/a> lifeguard scanning the shoreline for swimmers instead found something that barely even looked alive. While patrolling Access 2 beach on Mustang Island<\/a> late Saturday afternoon, Gulf Beach lifeguard\u00a0Nevaeh Vela spotted what could have easily been mistaken for a mound of sand at beach marker 85.<\/p>\n It wasn’t. It was one of the rarest sea turtles in the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A turtle struggling to breathe<\/p>\n “With the bigger swells and flooding, it’s not entirely uncommon for turtles to wash ashore, especially with it being the beginning of nesting season,” Vela told Chron, but a few details stood out. It was the middle of a busy holiday weekend, she said, and the turtle was easy to miss entirely. She also quickly recognized it as a Kemp’s ridley<\/a>, an endangered species<\/a> and the only sea turtle native to Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n Scientifically known as Lepidochelys kempii, the species is the smallest and most endangered sea turtle in the world.<\/p>\n That alone was enough for Vela, a marine biology student at Texas A&M University\u2013Corpus Christi<\/a>, to act. But what she saw up close made the situation more urgent.\u00a0The turtle barely reacted when she approached. It was sluggish, struggling even to breathe.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “It could barely lift its head for air when the surf broke over it,” she said.<\/p>\n Vela knew not to intervene directly.<\/p>\n “I’m not a certified professional, and it’s a federal crime to touch a protected species,” she said, explaining she instead called several rehabilitation centers. But it was after 5 p.m. on a Saturday, and no one initially picked up.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n She left a voicemail for the Amos Rehabilitation Keep<\/a>, known as ARK. Staff called back within 20 minutes.\u00a0By then, Vela had left work, but ARK kept her updated by text as they recovered the turtle.<\/p>\n When the staff arrived, its condition was clear.<\/p>\n “The turtle was not moving, lethargic and was taking frequent, raspy breaths with waves coming in onto the turtle,” ARK staff supervisor Andrew Orgill<\/a> said. He added that algal growth on the shell suggested the animal may have been in poor condition for some time.<\/p>\n It was an adult male, identified by a long tail extending past the shell.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “Adult Kemp’s ridleys<\/a> are considered to be definitely males if the tail extends at least 5 cm,” Orgill said.<\/p>\n What the X-ray revealed<\/p>\n What they found next explained everything.\u00a0An exam and X-ray revealed a small piece of a fishing hook lodged in the turtle’s trachea, blocking its airway and causing severe respiratory distress.<\/p>\n An X-ray shows a fishing hook lodged in the sea turtle’s airway after it was rescued from Mustang Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jackie Erbaugh<\/p>\n Vela didn’t know that at the time.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “I felt horrible,” she said, recalling that earlier in the day she had treated someone who stepped on a fishing hook at the same beach. The connection stuck with her. “It goes to show that pollution and carelessness can stretch not only to animals but to humans as well.”<\/p>\n Using\u00a0endoscopy, ARK staff removed the hook fragment.\u00a0The turtle, still unnamed, remains in critical condition.<\/p>\n “The turtle is being monitored closely, and he is on antibiotics, pain medication and anti-inflammatories,” Orgill said.<\/p>\n Cases like this are routine for the facility. “Discarded gear is sometimes referred to as ‘ghost gear,'” Orgill said, noting that drowning is a frequent risk when turtles can’t reach the surface to breathe. It’s something their team sees almost weekly.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The damage goes beyond entanglement.<\/p>\n “Other impacts include deep lacerations, flipper amputations, inability to swim properly, ingestion of baits, hooks and line,” Orgill said, adding that heavily fished jetties make the area especially high risk.<\/p>\n If someone accidentally hooks a sea turtle,\u00a0Orgill said not to cut the line. Instead, call 1-866-TURTLE5 so trained responders can safely retrieve it.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “On piers in Port Aransas, the ARK also partners with Loggerhead MarineLife Center<\/a> out of Florida to offer the Responsible Pier Initiative<\/a>,” he said, which equips volunteers with drop nets to safely recover turtles. Cutting the line, he added, can leave hooks embedded and trailing line that increases the risk of entanglement and drowning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Kemp’s ridley sea turtle lies along the shoreline on Mustang Island after washing ashore in distress.\u00a0 Jackie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[138621,243121,138622,79,201],"class_list":["post-572804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-chronnews","tag-chronscience","tag-chronstaff","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572804","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=572804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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