Somewhere in the Gulf between Venice and Big Sarasota Pass, a loggerhead sea turtle old enough to have been cruising these waters since the 1990s is swimming free this week because a Coast Guard boat happened to pass by at exactly the right moment.
—The crew from Coast Guard Station Cortez, the station just across Longboat Pass that patrols local waters, was heading home Oct. 11 after working a safety zone for the Englewood offshore powerboat races when they spotted the turtle about a mile offshore. The big loggerhead, its shell roughly three feet long, had a crab pot line cinched tight around its neck. For an air-breathing animal that has to surface regularly, it was a death sentence in slow motion.
—Under coxswain Petty Officer 1st Class Phillips, the crew eased the 45-foot response boat alongside, carefully brought the turtle to the gunwale, cut away the line and let it go. The turtle, which the crew estimated at 25 to 40 years old, swam off under its own power.
—The six-member crew was a mix of active duty and reserve members: Petty Officers Phillips, Bland, Connors, Emborski and Carty, all reservists, and active-duty Petty Officer Primato.
—“Moments like this show the true strength of our total workforce,” the Coast Guard said in announcing the rescue. “Whether active duty or reserve, our crew remains ready to protect both the boating public and our native marine life.”
—Not in the job description, but all in a day’s work
—Sea turtle saves are not an official Coast Guard mission, but they happen often enough around Florida that the service has gotten good at them. Crews from the Keys to the Panhandle routinely cut loggerheads and green turtles out of trap lines and fishing gear, usually spotted the same way — by chance, from a boat already underway.
—The timing of this one is worth noting. Stone crab season opened Oct. 15, which means thousands of fresh trap lines are dropping into Gulf waters right now. Entanglement in fishing gear is among the leading human-caused threats to sea turtles, and loggerheads have been federally listed as threatened since 1978. State wildlife officials urge trap owners to use weighted sinking line so slack rope does not drift where turtles, dolphins and manatees swim, and researchers estimate that 30 to 50 percent of Florida’s 800,000-plus permitted blue crab traps are lost or abandoned each year, leaving “ghost” lines in the water long after the season ends.
—Boaters who spot a turtle in trouble should not attempt a rescue themselves. In Sarasota and Manatee counties, call Mote Marine Laboratory’s 24-hour stranding hotline at 888-345-2335; elsewhere in Florida, call the FWC Wildlife Alert line at 888-404-3922.
