Unidentified

The turtle was originally found stranded on the sand flats at low tide, out past King Island. The turtle was clearly unable to move its weight across the sand flats and appeared to be suffering from exposure to the hot sun. Eventually some other people joined us, and the consensus view was that the turtle was not obviously sick or injured and had most likely become stranded on the flats when caught out by the receding tide. Two of us eventually carried the turtle back to the water’s edge and carefully released it into knee deep water. The turtle immediately swam away from us with strong strokes, into deeper water. It was last seen some distance from the shore, regularly raising its head above the surface to breath. Additional details of the turtle are provided in following sighting 4526610. Thanks to Barbara for initially finding this wonderful, ancient looking creature.