In a rare occurrence, a leatherback sea turtle – the world’s largest sea turtle – washed ashore and was successfully released into the sea at Thanthadi Beach, about 30 kilometres from Visakhapatnam. According to marine biologists and local fishermen, the endangered sea turtle was seen in Visakhapatnam coast after a gap of seven years.
In the early hours of June 25, a group of fishermen at Thanthadhi Beach were surprised to find a huge turtle entangled in a ghost net. “This was a species we had never seen before in this region,” says K Masena, a fisherman, who works closely with the AP Department of Forest for marine life conservation. He, along with a few others, swung into action. They removed it from the net and released the turtle back into the sea.
The unusual sighting of the Leatherback turtle, said to have been in existence since the age of the dinosaurs, grabbed widespread attention after Srikanth Mannepuri, a photographer, shared it in social media.
