Rare sea turtle found by Wadmalaw

Benjamin Tyrone Gadsden was fishing off of Wadmalaw Island July 7 when he hooked one of the most interesting creatures he had ever seen.

"I'm a licensed mortician, and I've seen quite a few strange things as a mortician," he said. "Underwater is a different world."

Using some shrimp as bait, Gadsden accidently hooked a small Kemp's Ridley turtle, a rare endangered species usually found in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gadsden kept the creature in a freshwater pail until he read an article in The Post and Courier about another Kemp's Ridley, and realized he had an endangered species. On July 11 he turned the turtle in, and later in the day, "Wadmalaw" underwent surgery in Mount Pleasant to remove the fishhook in its tongue.

The surgery went well, Dr. Jose Biascoechea said about the little guy, coming in at just a little over 4 pounds and roughly the size of a dinner plate.

The S.C. Aquarium also received another turtle, a loggerhead, after it was found stranded on Bull's Island last week. "Bull" is the third adult male the aquarium has treated in its seven-year history, and coincidentally all were found this year.

Aquarium officials estimated the Kemp's Ridley to be about two or three years old, and after a few weeks of recuperation they plan to release it into deep water.

This is the second Kemp's Ridley to be accidently snagged in a week; the other was hooked off of Edisto Island.

Unlike loggerhead turtles, Kemp's Ridleys are smaller, have hooked beaks, and an iron-gray shell.

They almost exclusively nest just south of the U.S. border off the Gulf of Mexico. However, some go as far north as New England.

In 2006, of 90 turtles found stranded in the state, 17 were Kemp's Ridley.