Here’s something you don’t see every day.

A juvenile loggerhead sea turtle.

While we were trawling for shrimp in Wassaw Sound on board the Research Vessel Savannah, a young loggerhead sea turtle got caught up in he net. After a quick examination to make sure he wasn’t injured, we returned him to the water. Our nets do not have the turtle excluder devices required of commercial shrimpers. So our trawls are limited to no longer than 15 minutes, just in case a sea turtle gets caught up in the net.