“Help! I’m fishing and just caught a huge sea turtle. She’s completely swallowed my hook.” We are two veterinarians, Debra Moore, who specializes in sea turtles, and John Thomason, who specializes in internal medicine. This is a call we get a lot in our work with the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network.
Thirty minutes after we received this call, the Sea Turtle Stranding team arrived at the Moses Pier in Gulfport, Mississippi, to find a frantic fisherman standing next to a 65-pound female Kemp’s ridley sea turtle. She was lying on the pier with fishing line coming out of her mouth. After examining the turtle for injuries, the team drove her to the veterinary hospital to see if we could save this turtle’s life.