Quote:
Originally Posted by kmoose
This was a crusty old leatherback. Ive only seen 3 in the gulf and this one was the biggest. They have found them 2100 pounds and this one was easily half of that.
|
About 5 years ago, A friend and I were heading back in to Cedar Key from grouper fishing. It was foggy and we were running through a group of crab pots in about 25' of water. Started seeing lots of large jellyfish. Then started seeing large leatherbacks. We saw 4 or 5 of them as we were going along, then did a double take. There was one with a crab pot buoy right by his head. It was kinda "WTF, is he trying to eat that thing?".
We circled back and figured out he was tangled in the rope from the crab pot. It was wrapped around his neck and both front flippers. He was having to lift the pot off the bottom just to come up for air. We chased him around trying to catch him, but he kept going under. After about 5 minutes of pursuit, he was tired enough we could get close, and we managed to get a boat hook on the rope.
Fortunately, he was too tired to struggle very much, or we would have gotten the crap beaten out of us. We managed to get the rope cut loose and sent him on his way. He was about 6' long, and a good 3' wide in the shell. Head was about 10" across if I remember.
We were glad we could help. ++ Karma points. Makes ya feel good to be alive.
Dave