Turtle entangled in fishing line rescued from Durban beach
A badly injured turtle has been rescued just off Durban's North Beach after one of its flippers became entangled in a fishing line.
The 15-year-old loggerhead was spotted floating in the surf by a resident a few days ago.
A rescue crew from the Metro swam out this morning and managed to catch her.
Curator of Animal Health at Ushaka Marine World, Francois Lampen says animal - which has been named North - came into the veterinary clinic in a terrible condition.
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"She's quite emaciated, there is fishing line basically wrapped around the left flipper, and it is wrapped quite close to her body, and it's basically strangulated the whole leg - it's cut into the whole leg. The whole flipper has gone gangrenous."
Lampen says North's flipper will have to be amputated.
"We started her on some antibiotics. We are trying to stabilise her before we consider surgery. It's quite a large section that is necrotic, and we need to make sure she is strong for surgery. We will have to do this under general anaesthetic because it is a large surgery. We want to make sure she survives."
