A Coast Guard crew spotted a loggerhead sea turtle in serious distress about a mile offshore between Venice Inlet and Big Sarasota Pass on Sunday, its neck wrapped in a crab pot line. The combined active-duty and reserve team from Coast Guard Station Cortez worked to free the roughly three-foot-long turtle, then released it back into the Gulf.
The crew aboard response boat CG 45617 was returning from enforcing a safety zone for the Englewood Offshore Power Boat Races when members noticed the entangled animal, according to U.S. Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg. As WSVN 7News reported, the sighting came during a routine coastline patrol off Tampa, turning a scheduled transit into an impromptu rescue mission.
The disentanglement effort involved reserve coxswain BM1 Phillips, reserve members BM1 Bland, BM3 Connors, ME1 Emborski, and MK1 Carty, along with active-duty member BM3 Primato, per Sector St. Petersburg. Once free of the line, the crew estimated the loggerhead to be between 25 and 40 years old based on its size.
A Threatened Species in Florida's Coastal Waters
Loggerhead sea turtles in the Northwest Atlantic are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act and are jointly managed by NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That federal protection underscores why wildlife officials treat the rescue of even a single adult turtle as ecologically significant, since each surviving breeding-age animal matters to the species' long-term recovery.
Wildlife officials who released video of the rescue urged fishermen and crabbers to use weighted lines that sink to the sea floor rather than float at the surface, where turtles, dolphins, and other marine life can become entangled. Officials also advised that abandoned gear can be reported to local authorities, according to the footage shared alongside the rescue.
Timing Collides With Stone Crab Season
The rescue came just days before Florida's recreational stone crab season, which runs from October 15 through May 1, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. State regulations require recreational crab traps to be tagged and buoyed with a visible two-inch “R,” and officials advise trap owners to use weighted sinking lines so excess rope doesn't float where marine life can get caught.
The scale of the problem is considerable. Clearwater Marine Aquarium has reported that out of more than 800,000 blue crab traps permitted annually in Florida, an estimated 30% to 50% are lost or abandoned each year, creating so-called ghost traps and derelict lines that pose long-term hazards to sea turtles, dolphins, and manatees.
The rescue arrives amid a notable stretch for loggerheads along Florida's Gulf Coast. Nearby Pinellas County was in a record sea turtle nesting season scheduled to run through October 31, 2026, with Clearwater Marine Aquarium tracking 405 nests.
