655-Pound Sea Turtle Rescued Off Cape Cod

A 655-pound sea turtle measuring 7 feet long was rescued off of Cape Cod, a rare glimpse of the largest reptile in the world.

The New England Aquarium in Boston nursed the leatherback sea turtle back to health, treating it for dehydration, trauma, and shock, The Christian Science Monitor reported. It was later released back to the waters off Cape Cod.

Experts say that the 655-pound sea turtle was actually underweight and a large portion of its left front flipper was missing after it suffered some kind of trauma. Wikipedia notes that adult male turtles can actually weigh up to 1,500 pounds.

Leatherback sea turtles are endangered, and experts used information they gleaned from other brief encounters with the species to nurse the 655-pound sea turtle back to health.

This type of turtle is common to the Atlantic Ocean, making an annual migration to the waters near Massachusetts to eat the abundant jellyfish found there. They then leave for warmer waters during September and October, the New England Aquarium noted.

As Wikipedia notes, the 655-pound sea turtle would have actually been at place nearly anywhere in the ocean. As the article states:

Of all the extant sea turtle species, D. coriacea has the widest distribution, reaching as far north as Alaska and Norway and as far south as the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and the southernmost tip of New Zealand.The leatherback is found in all tropical and subtropical oceans, and its range extends well into the Arctic Circle.

Check out the 655-pound sea turtle in this video: