Sea Turtle Shot In Neck With 3-Foot Spear

[HalcyonDaze]

Discussions of mental capacity aside, marine animals are generally able to come back from grievous injury (there are some exceptions - hammerhead sharks are notoriously bad at taking capture stress). I've seen a number of turtles with missing chunks of shell or flippers from shark bites; the wounds were clearly old. Seals and sealions are also highly resilient if they don't bleed to death from the initial wounds.

And then here's "Garbage Guts" saying "Hold my beer" - Shark Survives Over A Year With A Hole Between Its Stomach And The Sea - Science Sushi

 

[HalcyonDaze]

We don't disagree about that.

What I was asking about was whether green sea turtles are so critically endangered that the survival of one single individual has an impact on the survival of the species. It's probably more humane to euthanize that individual rather than subjecting it to the stress it experiences by being handled by the vets. So whether that individual should be treated or euthanized is a question of whether the survival of the species depends on that individual's well-being being violated.

Sometimes the most ethical action is to euthanize.

If you're ever diving in this neck of the ocean, "Splinter" may want to have a word with you about that: Turtle returns to ocean after recovering from spear attack

 

[Diver below 83]

I need to drive down and do a tour ASAP

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

"Splinter" the turtle is back home in the ocean.
Turtle released back into ocean after vets remove large spear from neck