West Palm Turtle Shots

[pdoege]

Hey guys -

I was diving some wrecks in W. Palm with some friends and ran across this turtle.

I was using a Canon S40 w/o the flash and a Halcyon Pro6 HID to light.

The turtle did a corkscrew while it was leaving its sleeping area and swam right by me.

Really beautiful and graceful.

We also released an injured turtle into the wild. I've included a shot of its healed wound and a picture of its cute little nose. The turtle is covered with a wet towel to shade it, cool it and to calm it down.

Peter Doege

edit: Dive report for this dive is at http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=253546#post253546

 

[pdoege]

He is turning toward me to clear some wreckage.

 

[pdoege]

Moving into the gap between the two other divers. The diver in the picture is named Bryan. He is from Michigan and was diving dry.

 

[pdoege]

He is almost right below and is starting to ascend.

 

[pdoege]

Past me and ascending. He did a few more turns to check us out before he left.

 

[Depth Gauge]

Great stuff Pdoege! I've loved every encounter with a turtle. Love watching their eyes and mind work.

Jason

 

[pdoege]

This turtle had been run over by a boat and rescued. The propeller had removed large chunks of its shell.

The turtle had been rehabilitated in a tank for about a year.

Jim Abernathy had been asked to release it, and I happened to be on the boat.

This picture is of its wound. All healed and covered in scar tissue.

The turtle was really active on the boat. He was crawling around, trying to figure out how to enter the water.

The towel is wet and was used to cool the turtle. It also blinded him, she got really, really active when he scould see. It was better to keep her calm.

She spent a good portion of the trip out nestled against my leg. Sort of a new experience.

Peter Doege

edit: Fixed the turtle's gender.

 

[pdoege]

This is a shot of the wounded turtles nose. She stuck it out of the towel to breathe.

Really cute!

She's a heart breaker!

Peter Doege