DATE: Saturday, July 19, 1997               TAG: 9707190294

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, staff writer 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   70 lines

A PAINFUL PRICE BY HUMAN HANDS ANIMALS OFTEN LOSE WHEN THEY ENCOUNTER MAN'S CARELESSNESS.

Raw red sores around its neck, beside its mouth and at the front edge of its flipper told the story.

A rare and endangered sea turtle, found Friday in the surf at Little Island Park, bore the wounds of a fishing line that soon would have caused its death.

But the Kemp's ridley turtle seemed to be doing well, thanks to the efforts of a lifeguard who brought it to shore and the Virginia Marine Science Museum Stranding Team, which removed the filament line and kept the sea turtle for observation.

It was the second sea turtle in three days rescued from fishing lines. A loggerhead turtle was caught in fishing lines Wednesday night at the Lynnhaven Fishing Pier. In this case, the fishermen called in the alarm and helped save the animal.

The two turtles were more fortunate than two dolphins that washed up dead on the shore near Fort Story earlier in the week and a large male loggerhead turtle recently found at the Oceanfront with fatal propeller wounds.

Both the young male and female bottlenose dolphins showed signs of having been caught in fishing nets. The animals quickly drown when they are unable to surface and breathe.

The animal deaths dramatized the issue of human interaction with sea creatures. Museum officials stressed the importance of not discarding fishing lines or other material and of taking care when operating fast boats in turtle feeding grounds.

``People need to be aware that turtles are out there, that they have to come to the surface to breathe and they're hard to see,'' said stranding team member Susan Barco. ``With so many fast boats out there, they seem to get it fairly often.''

A large dead loggerhead was found near 40th Street at the Oceanfront about two weeks ago. It was slashed on the back near its neck. Gloria Furguson, who lives nearby, said a young boy stood vigil over the dead animal. ``It was obvious it had touched his heart,'' she said.

Three of the most common dangers to sea creatures are fishing lines, propeller and boat strikes, and discarded plastic, officials said. Sea turtles often confuse plastic items with jellyfish, which can be a food source.

Fishing line need not be discarded. Local tackle shops routinely recycle it.

Kemp's ridleys are the smallest sea turtles, with shells that are about 30 inches long. They are also the most endangered, according to a flier from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They make their way to the Chesapeake Bay region from hatching grounds in the Gulf of Mexico, where their numbers have sharply dwindled.

Their decline is primarily due to human activities, including the collection of eggs and the killing of adults for meat and other products, said the flier.

Friday's encounter may have a happy ending.

After being freed from the line, the young turtle - about seven years old - swam vigorously about in a holding tank in the stranding center, bumping into the sides of the tank and taking a growing interest in a few blue crabs that were also in residence.

Stranding team officials said the sea turtle could be taken out to sea today and released.

Museum spokeswoman Alice Scanlan said the animal had line around its neck and in its mouth. In time, as the animal grew, the line would have strangled it. ``He was pretty lucky he was found when he was,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by PHILIP HOLMAN

This young Kemp's ridley sea turtle was ensnared in fishing line

when rescuers found it Friday. KEYWORDS: SEA TURTLE ACCIDENT

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