Simon Jones
Published Feb 20, 2016 at 8:00 am (Updated Feb 20, 2016 at 11:47 am)

On the mend: doctors and marine experts at the aquarium are continuing to nurse a
loggerhead turtle back to health after she underwent a 3½-hour operation to remove a
hook from her trachea (Photograph by Akil Simmons)

A loggerhead turtle that underwent life-saving surgery to remove a rusting hook that had became embedded in her throat has started to eat for herself.

The turtle, who has been named Daisy by the hospital surgeons, is continuing to gain weight as she is monitored in a quarantine tank at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo.

Staff still hope to release the marine animal back to the wild later in the spring when she has gained more weight and the weather conditions are less severe.

Ian Walker, the BAMZ curator, told The Royal Gazette that it would be “several months” before the turtle could safely be released.

“She is doing well but still in our back-up quarantine tank,” Dr Walker said. “She will never be integrated into our display animals as she is deemed releasable and that is our goal. The plan is simply to get weight on her and then, presuming there no lingering health issues, release her to the wild. She is currently eating 20 squid per day and is slowly gaining weight back.”

The turtle was rescued by free divers Shaun Holland and Aaron Bean off the North Shore on December 30 and brought to the aquarium.

Scans conducted at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital revealed a hook deep in the turtle’s trachea that had caused her left lung to hyperinflate and the right lung to partially collapse.

At the beginning of last month, a team of surgeons and doctors performed an emergency tracheotomy to remove the hook before then repairing both the tissue and skin damage caused by the incision.

Dr Walker added: “Thanks to the surgery, she has resolved her buoyancy issue and spends much of her day resting on the bottom of the tank or swimming around it, only coming up to breathe.

“Her breathing has returned to normal also, and she no longer has those terrible breath sounds when she had the hook across the trachea.”