Turtle Asks for Help!

Kade pointed and said "What's that" in an excited tone. You see we were spotting fish on the surface and he saw something big. As we went to investigate we found that it was a Kemp Riddley sea turtle but something was strange. There appeared to be something following it. Well on closer inspection it was a wad of garbage and it was obvious that the poor guy was entangled in something as he tried to go down. I thought to myself "oh boy, we'll never be able to help this guy" as he swam down and out of sight when we got nearer. We grabbed the net anyway. Now the amazing part. The turtle came back up and swam towards the boat and as we reached with the net he looked straight at us and went right in the net. I swear he was purposely allowing us to net him. Normally these guys are very weary and go down at the first sight of a boat in the distance.

Well, he was a mess. I cut braided fishing line with my scissors that had wrapped many times around both his flippers and was nearly cutting into him. There was a ball of braided line attached to him also that had collected garbage and vegetation. When I lifted him back in the water and he swam away smartly it was the best feeling ever. I know my crew that day shared my joy too. McKenna, Jamie, Dave and Kade were already elated by our encounters with dolphin and manatees but this was a wildlife encounter that few experience. The feeling of helping a beautiful creature like that in his time of desperate need and seeing him so close up was awesome. Oh we got some nice fish too. but we'll always remember the turtle that was so desperate that he accepted help from us scary creatures.