Turtle Rescue

After a failed freediving attempt to assist her, our two safety boat drivers radioed our main office. The staff there quickly gathered scuba diving equipment along with line cutters and other provisions for the divers. Two members of our esteemed and highly attractive dive team and John from the yard went out on a rescue mission.

Within two minutes of arriving at the site, they found her at the surface.

One of our divers donned his dive equipment and jumped in to begin the untangling process. After an initial struggle attempting to get the turtle to a position where they could help without causing further injuries; the dive team quickly realised that it would be better to lift her into the safety boat. They used the boats ‘Man Overboard Recovery System’ to safely and carefully lift the turtle into the boat.

They discovered a mass of fishing line and hooks caught around her front and back flippers. And, around her neck. The rescue team used line cutters and a small set of clippers to free from her plastic prison.

As you can imagine she is a large and powerful turtle. And, she was understandably scared at first. It took three members of our team to lift her into the boat. However, once she realised that she was being helped and no longer in pain, she quickly calmed down and allowed the team to cut away all the fishing line. We are very happy to announce that our stunning turtle friend who we have lovingly named ‘Tilly’ is back where she belongs. In her ocean home swimming free from any restraints.