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A green sea turtle is fighting for her life after rescuers found a five-centimetre rusty nail in her shell which was likely shot by a nail gun.
Key points:
- A turtle rehab centre says it’s heartbroken to find a green sea turtle with a rusty nail in its shell
- While the turtle’s prognosis is still uncertain, the centre has had a recent success story
- Turtle Moana has recovered after months in care and an elaborate rescue involving a crane
Female green sea turtle Midori was found in the mouth of the Calliope River in central Queensland late last year, floating near the top of the water.
A local man saw the turtle was unwell while out in his boat and she was taken to the Quoin Island Turtle Rehabilitation Centre in Gladstone.
“She was in really poor condition because she already had boat strikes that had been healing but had heavy parasite load in there as well,” Kim van Oudheusden, the centre’s general manager, said.
“When we started cleaning those wounds up, we noticed what looked like a skin tag.”
Turtle Midori is recovering from boat strike injuries that became infected, as well as the nail injury. (ABC Capricornia: Katrina Beavan)
On closer inspection the wound was a 5cm rusty nail, completely embedded in the shell.
Ms van Oudheusden said for a nail to have penetrated the shell that deeply, it was likely embedded with a nail gun.
“It’s pretty heartbreaking that somebody would do something like that to a turtle, we just quite can’t quite comprehend why somebody would do such a thing,” she said.
The nail was found embedded in Midori’s shell after she was rescued (Supplied: Quoin Island Turtle Rehabilitation Centre)
She said the nail was in the area of where Midori’s lungs were located and she was now on antibiotics for infections from various wounds and was undergoing other treatments.
“We don’t know if she’s going to make it, but we’re keeping all our flippers crossed,” she said.
“Hopefully she’s going to pull through.”
She said it wasn’t something the centre had seen before, though 35 per cent of the turtles treated were affected by human impact, including boat strikes, fishhooks or fishing line entanglements.
Midori is being cared for in the rehabilitation centre, though it’s too early to know if she will make it. (ABC Capricornia: Katrina Beavan)
Success story
Though Midori’s fate is still up in the air, the centre had a recent success story with fellow green sea turtle Moana.
In July, workers at the Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) refinery found Moana stuck in mud in the Gladstone Harbour.
Green sea turtle Moana was found stuck in mud in the Gladstone harbour (Supplied: Quoin Island Turtle Rehabilitation Centre)
After checking the cameras, the crew realised she had been there a long time, they called the Quoin Island team, and the recommendation was to get Moana out to be assessed.
As the 76-kilogram turtle was in deep, slippery mud, at the bottom of a steep three-metre rock wall, the team decided to get the crane involved.
Workers at the Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) refinery used a crane and basket to remove Moana from the mud in July 2023. (Supplied: Jami Jobe)
QAL employee Corey Bruton has worked with cranes for more than 10 years, but this was the first time he had used one to rescue a turtle.
“As we got the planks down there, the plan was to organise the shift crane operator to come down with a certified lifting basket, and safely put her onto the cage,” he said.
Moana was manoeuvred into Quoin Island’s boat and taken to the island.
“When she was here, we quickly noticed that she had soft-shell syndrome,” Ms van Oudheusden said.
On average, turtles stay on the island for about 77 days. Green sea turtle Moana – a species listed as vulnerable — ended up staying for 165.
Turtle Moana recovered from soft shell syndrome, to be released off Quoin Island recently. (ABC Capricornia: Katrina Beavan)
Making a full recovery with a newly hardened shell, she was recently released into the waters off Quoin Island by the team, making her the 321st turtle successfully rehabilitated by the centre.
It rescues turtles from Yeppoon in the north, to Baffle Creek in the south, and sees a 73 per cent rehabilitation success rate among the turtles it rescues.
Moana was released back into the wild after 165 days in care (ABC Capricornia: Katrina Beavan)
With turtle nesting and hatchling season underway, Ms van Oudheusden urged boaties and others in coastal areas to be mindful.
That included watching speeds while boating on the water, not approaching nesting turtles, and turning lights off around beachfronts at night time, to avoid confusing emerging hatchlings.
