The injured reptile was transferred to a marine wildlife hospital for treatment of an infected limb entangled in fishing lines.
An Israel Nature and Parks Authority volunteer found a wounded 600-pound leatherback sea turtle on her daily beach walk near her home Wednesday, leading to its rescue and treatment at the national emergency clinic for marine wildlife.
The turtle, which measures 6.5 feet in length and had washed up on Tel Dor beach near Haifa, is missing one limb and the other is infected following an entanglement in some fishing lines, INPA staff told Ynet. The foreign object is embedded into the animal’s flesh, requiring antibiotic treatment before it’s removed.
Leatherbacks, which are Israel’s largest reptile, are rarely sighted on its beaches. The previous sighting was in 2022 of a dead specimen, which was also found entangled in fishing lines.