Aquarium of the Pacific's rescued green sea turtle is a model patient

Trapped for nearly a month this summer in an intake channel near a Long Beach power plant, she was a 38-pound turtle in range of people who tried to snag it with hooks or impale her with makeshift spears.

After she was finally rescued, the green sea turtle was moved into the veterinary emergency ward at the Aquarium of the Pacific, where officials found she had suffered from a number of painful injuries: broken digits, infected lacerations in two front flippers, a 3-inch gash on her carapace and a fishing hook in her rear flipper.

The Times' Louis Sahagun writes:

"She's been a good patient -- sea turtles usually are," aquarium veterinarian Lance Adams said. "Reptiles have an incredible ability to wall off infections, isolate them and heal around them."

This week, nearly two months after it was rescued, the turtle's condition had improved dramatically and it was cleared to return to the wilds within a week or two.

If the turtle's survival is remarkable, so is the place it will eventually be set free: a heavily industrialized stretch of the San Gabriel River where federal biologists recently discovered a resident colony of green sea turtles.

Federal biologists have launched a study of this unexpected colony to determine its size and, most intriguingly, why it appeared in what hardly could be called tropical waters.

The Times' has a comprehensive online package of the turtle's tale with not only Sahagun's story but a video he created (also below) and photo gallery by Mel Melcon.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Rochelle]

The mind boggles as to how or why people feel justified to hurt with the intent to kill this beautiful creature. I hope that the area where she is released is protected from these types of people. What a sad world for her to have gone through that trauma.