Should we take the barnacle off the turtle

There's a sea turtle who lives at a dive site I visit often. He has a barnacle on his shell. Should we take it off for him? If so is there a particular way to go about it that he'll mind less, or to minimize potential damage to his shell?

The barnacle is just a hitchhiker, not a parasite. I wouldn't think you would need to remove him.

No, leave it alone. It doesn't affect the turtle in the slightest and removing it would just stress the animal.

The barnacle doesn't bother the turtle in the slightest. And if your turtle is a girl, the barnacle will only last until the next time she... Well anyway, catching the turtle to remove the barnacle will cause it way more stress than the barnacle does.

nature is best left undisturbed....

Leave it be.

Keep in mind that in Florida it is a third degree felony to "take, disturb, mutilate, destroy, cause to be destroyed, transfer, sell, offer to sell, molest, or harass any marine turtles or the eggs or nest of any marineturtles described in this subsection.".

The general rule of thumb is that anything that is not looking is considered harassing.

Sea Turtle Oversight Protection - Florida Statute 379

While it is true that it is illegal.....you may find it interesting to know that one of Palm Beach'es early Diving Legends, Norine Rouse ( passed away about 7 years ago I think of very old age), was one of very few people with a special license to touch and directly interact with turtles. She had many large loggerheads that knew her by sight, and she would CLEAN them of barnacles...they would come up to her and beg for this...."Beg" meaning the opposite of stress or scare ........During her lifetime, Norine was one of the foremost authorities on sea turtles....For more, I did an interview of her many years ago...see it here with photos....Turtles the Norine part begins about 3 pages in....

danvolker:

While it is true that it is illegal.....you may find it interesting to know that one of Palm Beach'es early Diving Legends, Norine Rouse ( passed away about 7 years ago I think of very old age), was one of very few people with a special license to touch and directly interact with turtles. She had many large loggerheads that knew her by sight, and she would CLEAN them of barnacles...they would come up to her and beg for this...."Beg" meaning the opposite of stress or scare ........During her lifetime, Norine was one of the foremost authorities on sea turtles....For more, I did an interview of her many years ago...see it here with photos....Turtles the Norine part begins about 3 pages in....

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Nice, Dan. I guess if one old barnacle could do it, maybe you're suggesting everyone should? :/ Back in the day folks speared Jewfish for sport, and paper companies dumped tons of chlorine in what were formerly, and are now again, trout laden rivers. You think we should go back to that?

Wookie:

Nice, Dan. I guess if one old barnacle could do it, maybe you're suggesting everyone should? :/ Back in the day folks speared Jewfish for sport, and paper companies dumped tons of chlorine in what were formerly, and are now again, trout laden rivers. You think we should go back to that?

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Wookie, you interpreted differently than my intent.

I think it is important for divers to know that THEY should not do certain things. However, I think the reasons for this need to be clear, and not fictitious.
Divers should know it would be illegal for them to touch a turtle, or to attempt to remove a barnacle. But...

Divers should also know enough about turtles to know that they are very active in symbiotic relationships with organisms that CLEAN THEM ( spanish hogs, cleaner shrimp, etc), and that there has been one person that was able to achieve this level of harmony with turtles. One of the ways that critical imbalance of a marine ecosystem can occur, is when the "cleaner fish and shrimp" are killed. If a manmade event kills off the cleaner station organisms, then the big fish will all leave, or grow sick and die. Turtles do have strong symbiotic relationships with the Spanish Hogfish--they have a special pose that brings the Spanish hog in, and then the Spanish hog spends lots of time cleaning and eating


You know, in the old days, back in the 50's , 60's and 70's, the oldtimer spearfisherman that were shooting the jewfish, were laboring under a misconception...a misconception that was taught to them by America's educational system. I clearly remember elementary school and highschool classes in the 60's and 70's--and they were TEACHING that "the ocean was an inexhaustible source of life/food".
The oldtimer spearfisherman had no sense that what they were doing would ever change anything.....at least not in the 50's 60's and 70's....As we hit the late eighties and early nineties, it was quickly becoming apparent that jewfish were disappearing, and we were seeing this in the mid nineties to late nineties with hogsnapper.

We still had a "big game hunter" mentality to spearfishing in the early nineties...but it was being "educated into extinction" By 2008, the spearfishing dinosaurs were a tiny minority, what was left had evolved , and were nothing like the pioneers to this in the 50's and 60's. The few you see today tend to be highly selective in what they shoot, and they no longer do any "damage" in the grand scheme--today the real damage is done by long lining and netting by the big commercial fishing fleets.

The jewfish actually disappeared completely on the shallow reefs around 1989, and this ended their commercial value ( cat food ? ) , about the same time spearfisherman were also discussing how they should not shoot them anymore...but considerably too late. Fortunately the Jewfish were still on the very deep tech wrecks, where I got to see them throughout the 90's.