Sea turtle caught in shrimp trawl now back in the wild
LAKE CHARLES - Nine months after being caught in a shrimper's trawl, a young endangered sea turtle named Raye is back in the wild in south Louisiana.
The Audubon Nature Institute and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said Thursday that the male Kemp's ridley sea turtle was released Wednesday in a lake near the offshore area where he was accidentally caught July 26.
The agencies say shrimper Bobby Aguillard called federal authorities to report catching the turtle, and brought the animal to shore in Cameron Parish.
State wildlife biologists brought him to Audubon, where a veterinarian found it was dehydrated and underweight, and had a mouth and shoulder injury. The staff at Audubon's Coastal Wildlife Network fed him through a tube for a few days, until he could eat on his own.